Social Sciences – Page 8 – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Social Sciences

Reviving Growth Keynesianism

The Reviving Growth Keynesianism Project is a podcast and blog meant to start a conversation about Keynesian economics. Keynesianism is an economic theory that is generally associated with John Maynard Keynes, an economist from the 1930s. His ideas became popularized during the Great Depression. Keynesianism is the idea that the economy cannot grow if there is not demand for the products being sold. It argues that economic equality is important to the growth and stability of an economy. Keynesianism was the widely accepted form of economic thought until the 1970s. Currently, many economic solutions being floated such as Universal Basic Income draw on Keynesian ideas.

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MODS (Military Occupation Data Set)

My research project, the Military Occupation Data Set, or MODS for short, involves analysis of various military conflicts over the last 200 years to determine whether or not the conflict involved an occupation and whether or not the occupation was a success. This research could help the world by shining a light on the risks of military occupations and the frequency in which they fail, hopefully leading to aggressive countries pursuing occupations less in the future. Thus far I have researched 2 conflicts, one of which I have completed research for. The conflict I have completed work on was a war between China and Tibet in the early 20th century. I had to read through multiple books and papers on the war to find and confirm information regarding the conflict. Then I proceeded to put the information I found into codebooks for the project that took in details about the war. I found that the Chinese occupation ended in failure due to the 1911 revolution that ended the Qing dynasty. These findings will add to the data set and lead to a general conclusion on how often military occupations lead to failure, which strategies lead to the best outcomes, and what costs countries incur when taking on an occupation.

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War & Military Occupations Data Set

On the heels of a disastrous series of conflicts in the Middle East that was and is wildly unpopular, Americans and the world have come to be wary of military occupations of foreign countries. Thus, there is an increased need for research to understand why some occupations succeed while others fail, as knowing this will help avoid needless and endless wars in foreign countries. By gathering primary and secondary sources of conflicts that may or may not have included a military occupation from 1815 to the present, a clearer picture of the factors that make a military occupation successful can be identified. An analysis of these conflicts reveal that every occupier has motivations in starting a military occupation. The success and failure of military occupations largely depend on this goal, with higher goals generating more costs for the occupier as domestic and international opposition mounts. Therefore, this contributes to a growing sentiment that getting involved militarily in other states should be a last resort, and every effort should be made to solve conflicts non-militarily.

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What are the Implications of Believing that there is no Truth?

Our study aims to investigate the trait of nescience–believing that the truth cannot be known. This is applicable in a variety of topics, such as politics and philosophy; an individual who is “high in nescience” would be unlikely to believe an absolute truth, like the existence of God. As information becomes increasingly available and, consequently, increasingly conflicting, it’s become apparent that people have begun to adopt a nescient standpoint more often, choosing to forgo making concrete judgements, even when necessary. In an effort to further explore the consequences of such behavior, the study we are constructing will measure the correlation between nescience and other traits, such as anti-intellectualism. We will be collecting results through a survey. As of right now, we have no defined hypothesis, although we began under the suspicion that widespread nescient traits may have negative implications. If our results are significant, we plan to use the information to make the public more aware of the topic of nescience, and the possible dangers of maintaining an uncertain stance too often.

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Continuous evaluation of instruction

The project uses mobile-eye tracking in classrooms to analyze teachers responses to misbehaviors in the classroom and find the most effective way of responding to a misbehavior. To measure this response, we have collected 52 different videos of 26 classrooms in which an expert teacher and a student teacher take turns teaching in. Each class period has various videos, an eye tracking video as well as a few stationary cameras focused on the students. The class periods last from 35 to 45 minutes long and feature 1st to 11th grade classrooms with around 20 or 30 students in them. The groups of students reflected different socioeconomic backgrounds. The mobile eye-tracking device tracks the teachers gaze, recording whether the teacher notices a student misbehaving. Trained coders watch each video and code each misbehavior and the teacher’s response. The point of the project is to code each misbehavior in the classroom and record whether the teacher sees it and how they respond. Preliminary results show that teachers are unaware of a majority of misbehaviors in their classrooms, that teachers respond fairly to misbehavior with regards to student gender, and that teachers are unresponsive to most of the misbehaviors they see. Although data originally suggested that teachers’ responses to boys and girls differ, further research shows that this is because boys and girls misbehave differently. This study allows educational psychologists to understand how and when teachers respond to misbehaviors in the classroom and allow them to evaluate any disparities in the education system.

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Continuous evaluation of instruction

We used Mobile Eye-tracking in regular class periods to investigate teacher attention to and teacher response to misbehavior in the classroom. To measure teacher attention, Mobile Eye-tracking follows a teacher’s gaze and their fixations onto a video of the classroom that reflects their personal field of vision. To measure teacher response to misbehaviors, trained coders watched 52 different videos of 26 different 1st through 11th grade classrooms, each taught by an expert teacher and a student-teacher. Class periods ranged from 35 to 45 minutes with 20 to 30 students, who reflected various socioeconomic backgrounds. Preliminary results show (1) that teachers do not see a majority of misbehavior in their classrooms, (2) that teachers do not respond to a majority of misbehaviors they see, and (3) that teachers respond fairly to misbehavior with regards to student gender. While data suggest that teachers’ responses to boys and girls are different, further analysis shows that this is due to the fact that boys and girls misbehave in different ways. This study allows us as educational psychologists to understand more about how and when teachers respond to misbehaviors in the classroom. More broadly, it allows us to evaluate one supposed disparity in the education system.

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Reviving Growth Keynesianism

At a time defined by the collapse of longstanding capitalistic systems and institutions, Keynesian economic thought began its ascent to prominence in what would kick off an era of unprecedented growth and prosperity. John Maynard Keynes revolutionized the field of macroeconomics with the publication of his general theory in 1936, yet he was hardly the only economist contributing to the profession’s shift away from traditional neoclassical ideas. Throughout the mid-20th century, Keynesianism grew intertwined with American political institutions and common economic thought, yet a changing political landscape and an adverse economic climate halted Keynesian advances shy of their full potential. As we enter a new period defined by bold proposals to combat economic injustice, an unprecedented climate crisis, and the ever-looming threat of financial crisis, Keynesianism is once again taking center stage, and it is the goal of the RGK project to rekindle this living tradition of American political economy for a prosperous 21st century.

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Institutional Responses to Substance Using Pregnant Women

Our research looked into institutional responses to substance-using pregnant women. Institutions include entities such as the criminal justice system, the medical system, the legal system, and the child welfare system. Data gathered from state laws and statutes, newspapers, court cases, medical guidelines, and more were examined to put together a picture of how different United States entities worked together and separately in cases of substance-using pregnant women. Historical responses, such as those used during the 1980’s “crack epidemic”, as well as modern responses, such as those being used during the “Opioid epidemic”, were examined.

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Discrimination in Selective Enrollment Chicago Public High Schools

On the surface, the CPS (Chicago Public Schools) selective enrollment system seems to provide students with many opportunities and offers students access to a quality education at a high-performing school. Recently, however, both students and teachers have been speaking up about discrimination at these schools. This study will evaluate the different types of discrimination that students experience within the top five selective enrollment schools and discuss possible solutions to ending discrimination. This study specifically examines the question: What are the impacts of selective enrollment school practices on educational equity in urban school systems, particularly in Chicago Public Schools? A qualitative mixed methods study was used to analyze the student experience at these schools. We collected data from instagram posts from BIPOC Instagram pages from four of the five schools that were studied. Teacher interviews and local school council meetings were also used to gather information on the student experience at these schools. From these sources we found that racism and other forms of discrimination from teachers and staff members often can make students feel as if they are not wanted or do not belong at their high school. In addition to the issue of white supremacy, students also report that these selective schools often don’t consider other struggles that their students face when it comes to socioeconomic struggles. Many students also felt like their schools did not support them when they faced sexual harassment in these schools. All of these types of discrimination lead to a culture of discrimination where students feel like their concerns are being ignored by the school. This paper also looked into possible solutions for these issues of discrimination which included anti-racist staff training, minority teacher recruitment/retention, listening to student input, anti-racist curriculum and creating an anti-racist culture at schools.

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Filter Bubbles in Social Networks

This project will investigate how filter bubbles — groups that are filled with people that share similar opinions that are isolated from others — form in social networks. Through simulated social networks with human participants, the spread of opinions and information are assessed as participants alter the structure of their social network by adding and removing neighbors. The participants’ decisions in altering their social network is made after participants view their neighbors’ responses in controversial issues. As a result, the impact of disagreement and differing opinions is analyzed. This study not only investigates the importance of a participant’s needs to surround themselves with like-minded people, but also explores how participants view their neighbors. The overall structure of the social network is examined between the rounds as groups begin to form in the social network. By studying these group formations, we hope to pinpoint the factors that further cause filter bubble formation.

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