An Evaluation of “Does Economic Inequality Breed Political Conflict?” Studies

1989 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Irving Lichbach
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Modeling ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Formal Modeling ◽  
Conflict Studies ◽  
Rational Actor ◽  
Empirical Tests ◽  
Crucial Test

Contradictory findings, that economic inequality may have a positive, negative, or no impact on political conflict, are a puzzle for conflict studies. Three approaches have been used t o explain the inconsistent findings of the EI-PC (Economic Inequality-Political Conflict) nexus: statistical modeling, formal modeling, and theory building. Because analysts have tended to possess different research skills, these three approaches have been employed in isolation from one another. Singly, however, all three approaches have proved deficient and are unlikely to solve the EI-PC puzzle. The most fruitful approach is to combine the assumptions of the theory builders and the deductive approach of the formal modelers with the various empirical tests of the statistical modelers. Such an approach to the EI-PC puzzle produces a crucial test of the Deprived Actor and Rational Actor theories of conflict. The approach is also our best hope for solving the other long-standing puzzles in conflict studies.

scholarly journals How Computational Modeling Can Force Theory Building in Psychological Science

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162097058
Author(s):  
Olivia Guest ◽  
Andrea E. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Computational Modeling ◽  
Computational Model ◽  
Process Modeling ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Formal Modeling ◽  
Inference Process ◽  
Experimental Practice ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Scientific Inference ◽  
And Behaviors

Psychology endeavors to develop theories of human capacities and behaviors on the basis of a variety of methodologies and dependent measures. We argue that one of the most divisive factors in psychological science is whether researchers choose to use computational modeling of theories (over and above data) during the scientific-inference process. Modeling is undervalued yet holds promise for advancing psychological science. The inherent demands of computational modeling guide us toward better science by forcing us to conceptually analyze, specify, and formalize intuitions that otherwise remain unexamined—what we dub open theory. Constraining our inference process through modeling enables us to build explanatory and predictive theories. Here, we present scientific inference in psychology as a path function in which each step shapes the next. Computational modeling can constrain these steps, thus advancing scientific inference over and above the stewardship of experimental practice (e.g., preregistration). If psychology continues to eschew computational modeling, we predict more replicability crises and persistent failure at coherent theory building. This is because without formal modeling we lack open and transparent theorizing. We also explain how to formalize, specify, and implement a computational model, emphasizing that the advantages of modeling can be achieved by anyone with benefit to all.

scholarly journals Irritable bowel syndrome and psychological stress

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara S Bayne ◽  
Anita D Stuart ◽  
H Gertie Pretorius
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Stress ◽  
Psychological Stress ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Daily Stress ◽  
Stress Inventory ◽  
Irritable Bowel ◽  
The Relationship

The purpose of this study was twofold. The first aim was to clarify the relationship between psychological stress and lrritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) by establishing whether individuals suffering from IBS experience minor stress differently from healthy individuals in terms of its frequency or intensity. The second aim was more general and concerns theory building in a field filled with ambiguity and confusion. Two groups, one comprising IBS sufferers and the other healthy controls, completed the Daily Stress lnventory and the Occupational Stress lnventory - questionnaires designed to measure minor daily and occupational stress respectively. The findings indicate that IBS sufferers do not experience more stress than healthy individuals, but they experience the stressors with greater intensity.OpsommingDie doel van die studie was tweeledig. Eerstens is daar gepoog om duidelikheid te kry oor die verband tussen sielkundige stres en Prikkelbare Dermsindroom (PDS), deur te bepaal of individue wat aan PDS ly geringe stres anders ervaar as gesonde individue in terme van gereeldheid of intensiteit. Die tweede doelwit was meer algemeen en spreek die kwessie van teorie ontwikkeling aan in 'n veld gevul met dubbelsinningheid en verwarring. Twee groepe, een bestaande uit PDS lyers en die ander 'n gesonde kontrolegroep, het die "Daily Stress Inventory'' en die "Occupational Stress Inventory" voltooi. Die vraelyste is ontwerp om onderskeidelik daaglikse stres en werkstres te meet. Die resultate dui daarop dat PDS lyers nie meer stres ervaar as die gesonde individue nie, maar dat hulle wel die stressors ervaar met groter intensiteit.

scholarly journals MATERIALISME SEBAGAI PENGHAMBAT PEMBANGUNAN KESEJATERAAN SOSIAL

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-171
Author(s):  
Mohammad Sabiq ◽  
Akhmad Jayadi ◽  
Imam Nawawi ◽  
Mohammad Wasil
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The Other ◽  
Financial Security ◽  
The One ◽  
Positive Effect

Materialism and sich are the driving spirit of the community in achieving economic and financial security that saves a holistic and socially just welfare. This can be seen from the lives of people in materialistic developed countries, where the level of social stress is higher, economic inequality widens, horizontal conflict is rife. This research uses Pierre Felix Bourdieu's social theory in seeing people trust the expenditure of material with other values, such as spiritual and cultural values ​​that are no less urgent as elements of social welfare development. This study found that materialism on the one hand has a positive effect, where people are encouraged to use material standards in measuring the level of welfare they expect. On the other hand, materialism closes the presence of values ​​such as spirituality, local wisdom and agriculture in completing more holistic welfare standards.

Building strong research associations Interdisciplinarity, theory-building, and policy in politics and the life sciences and health services research

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (01) ◽  
pp. 56-60
Author(s):  
William P. Brandon
Keyword(s):  
Health Services Research ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Research Area ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Services Research ◽  
Lower Case

This essay explores efforts to establish interdisciplinary research associations by comparing two organizations that were founded in the early 1980s. One has focused on the field of politics and the life sciences and the other on health services research. Both are involved in securing recognition for a research area—or “field of research”—that had not previously been conceptualized as a coherent academic or professional enterprise. The motivation for this paper is my interest in politics and the life sciences (the field), the organization—the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences that was established in 1980 to foster scholarly study of the field—and its journal Politics and the Life Sciences. (For the sake of clarity I adopt the convention of signifying a field entirely in lower-case orthography, beginning an organizational name with capital letters and naming the related journals in italics.)

scholarly journals The Normalization of Hatred: Identity, Affective Polarization, and Dehumanization on Facebook in the Context of Intractable Political Conflict

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512091398
Author(s):  
Tal Orian Harel ◽  
Jessica Katz Jameson ◽  
Ifat Maoz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
The Other ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Physical Separation ◽  
Intractable Conflict ◽  
Echo Chamber

Our study uses a qualitative analysis of social media discourse on a Facebook page to demonstrate how the phenomena of affective polarization and dehumanization are manifested through participation in a homogeneous enclave, or echo chamber. We employ Northrup’s theory of identity in intractable conflict to show how users express their desire for psychological and physical separation from the other and use dehumanizing language that normalizes potentially dangerous levels of hatred during their participation on a Facebook page. This study contributes to our understanding of the link between identity, affective polarization, and dehumanization.

scholarly journals A Statistical Modeling of the Course of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) Outbreak: A Comparative Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 157-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Handan Ankarali ◽  
Seyit Ankarali ◽  
Hulya Caskurlu ◽  
Yasemin Cag ◽  
Ferhat Arslan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Statistical Modeling ◽  
Model Prediction ◽  
Genetic Differences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Death Toll ◽  
Natural Logarithm ◽  
Cubic Model

This study aims to provide both a model by using cumulative cases and cumulative death toll for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) outbreak in four countries, China, Italy, South Korea, and Turkey, starting from the first diagnosis and to compare associated indicators. The most successful estimation was obtained from the cubic model with natural logarithm for China, Italy, South Korea, and Turkey. The success of the models was around 99%. However, differences began to emerge in China, Italy, and South Korea after the second week. Although the highest number of new cases per 1 million people in China was 9.8 on February 28, 2020; it was 108.4 on March 21, 2020, in Italy; and this was 16.6 on March 5, 2020, in South Korea. On the other hand, the number of new cases was 24.6 per 1 million people on March 27, 2020, in Turkey. The log-cubic model proposed in this study has been set forth to obtain successful results for aforementioned countries, as well as to estimate the course of the COVID-19 outbreak. Other factors such as climacteric factors and genetic differences, which may have an impact on viral spreading and transmission, would also have strengthened the model prediction capacity.

scholarly journals Spatial long memory

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-256
Author(s):  
Peter M. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Statistical Modeling ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Long Memory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Memory Time ◽  
Short Memory ◽  
The One ◽  
Relevant Work

AbstractWe discuss developments and future prospects for statistical modeling and inference for spatial data that have long memory. While a number of contributons have been made, the literature is relatively small and scattered, compared to the literatures on long memory time series on the one hand, and spatial data with short memory on the other. Thus, over several topics, our discussions frequently begin by surveying relevant work in these areas that might be extended in a long memory spatial setting.

The Theoretical Potential of the Within-Nation Comparison: How Sub-National Analyses Can Enrich Our Understandings of the National Welfare State

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (8) ◽  
pp. 861-886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prerna Singh
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
National Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
National Welfare ◽  
Theory Generation ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
The One

This article seeks to showcase the previously underexplored theoretical potential of the recent “sub-national turn” in comparative politics. Specifically, I hope to delineate how theories derived to explain variation in an outcome across sub-national units can enrich our repertoire of theories to explain variation in the same and/or related outcomes across national units. I show the potential of this method of theory generation through an analysis of social welfare, a specially apposite outcome for this purpose because it has been studied rigorously at the both the national and sub-national levels of analyses. I argue that sub-national analyses can, on the one hand, help us refine and rethink national-level theories for the same outcomes. They can push us to nuance and extend established national theories and show us how the same variables and mechanisms that have been hypothesized to explain cross-country variations might work differently, even in opposite directions, within countries. On the other hand, sub-national analyses can push us past the established repertoire of national-level explanations to bring to light new (or forgotten) theories. In this way, this article seeks to challenge cross-country analyses as the exclusive domain of theory building in comparative politics.

Social Deliberation: Nash, Bayes, and the Partial Vindication of Gabriele Tarde

Episteme ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-184
Author(s):  
J. McKenzie Alexander
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Bayesian Updating ◽  
The Other ◽  
Actor Model ◽  
Imitative Learning ◽  
Von Neumann ◽  
Learning Rules ◽  
Rational Actor ◽  
The 19Th Century

ABSTRACTAt the very end of the 19th century, Gabriele Tarde wrote that all society was a product of imitation and innovation. This view regarding the development of society has, to a large extent, fallen out of favour, and especially so in those areas where the rational actor model looms large. I argue that this is unfortunate, as models of imitative learning, in some cases, agree better with what people actually do than more sophisticated models of learning. In this paper, I contrast the behaviour of imitative learning with two more sophisticated learning rules (one based on Bayesian updating, the other based on the Nash-Brown-von Neumann dynamics) in the context of social deliberation problems. I show for two social deliberation problems, the Centipede game and a simple Lewis sender-receiver game, that imitative learning provides better agreement with what people actually do, thus partially vindicating Tarde.

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