scholarly journals Scaling up experimental social, behavioral, and economic science

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Almaatouq ◽  
Joshua Aaron Becker ◽  
Michael Bernstein ◽  
Robert Botto ◽  
Eric Bradlow ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Computational Social Science ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
Economic Science ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
New Class ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Behavioral Science ◽  
Exciting Potential ◽  
The University

The standard experimental paradigm in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences is extremely limited. Although recent advances in digital technologies and crowdsourcing services allow individual experiments to be deployed and run faster than in traditional physical labs, a majority of experiments still focus on one-off results that do not generalize easily to real-world contexts or even to other variations of the same experiment. As a result, there exist few universally acknowledged findings, and even those are occasionally overturned by new data. We argue that to achieve replicable, generalizable, scalable and ultimately useful social and behavioral science, a fundamental rethinking of the model of virtual-laboratory style experiments is required. Not only is it possible to design and run experiments that are radically different in scale and scope than was possible in an era of physical labs; this ability allows us to ask fundamentally different types of questions than have been asked historically of lab studies. We posit, however, that taking full advantage of this new and exciting potential will require four major changes to the infrastructure, methodology, and culture of experimental science: (1) significant investments in software design and participant recruitment, (2) innovations in experimental design and analysis of experimental data, (3) adoption of new models of collaboration, and (4) a new understanding of the nature and role of theory in experimental social and behavioral science. We conclude that the path we outline, although ambitious, is well within the power of current technology and has the potential to facilitate a new class of scientific advances in social, behavioral and economic studies.This paper emerged from discussions at a workshop held by the Computational Social Science Lab at the University of Pennsylvania in January 2020. The work was supported by James and Jane Manzi Analytics Fund and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

An Introduction to Statistical Models for Networks

2020 ◽  
pp. 218-233
Author(s):  
Valentina Kuskova ◽  
Stanley Wasserman
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Exponential Family ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Uniform Distributions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Social And Behavioral Science ◽  
Network Methods

Network theoretical and analytic approaches have reached a new level of sophistication in this decade, accompanied by a rapid growth of interest in adopting these approaches in social science research generally. Of course, much social and behavioral science focuses on individuals, but there are often situations where the social environment—the social system—affects individual responses. In these circumstances, to treat individuals as isolated social atoms, a necessary assumption for the application of standard statistical analysis is simply incorrect. Network methods should be part of the theoretical and analytic arsenal available to sociologists. Our focus here will be on the exponential family of random graph distributions, p*, because of its inclusiveness. It includes conditional uniform distributions as special cases.

scholarly journals The Community Champions Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Sophie R. Mintz ◽  
Chantal A. Low ◽  
Ian J. McCurry ◽  
Terri H. Lipman
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
Community Members ◽  
School Of Nursing ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Hands On Learning ◽  
The University

The Community Champions program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing provides motivated nursing students with opportunities to partner with the greater Philadelphia community and engage in hands-on learning. With several thriving initiatives, students participate in service learning outside of the classroom, which ultimately strengthens their nursing and leadership skills. Students work to improve health and health education for people of all ages. These experiences help nursing students better understand the social determinants of health and how they impact community members. Dedicated faculty members assist in guiding the students, who work collaboratively to exchange ideas and methods. This program not only has an effect on the community, but also has a profound impact on the students that participate.

The World before (and Shortly after) Wharton

2019 ◽  
pp. 14-52
Author(s):  
Steven Conn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Educational Leaders ◽  
The United States ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
American Business ◽  
Wharton School ◽  
The Social ◽  
University Degree ◽  
The University

This chapter examines why educational leaders and businessmen in the United States thought it was a good idea to establish business schools in the first place. The answer often offered at the time was that American business itself had grown so big and complex by the turn of the twentieth century that a new university-level education was now required for the new world of managerial work. However, the more powerful rationale was that businessmen wanted the social status and cultural cachet that came with a university degree. The chapter then looks at the Wharton School of Finance and Economy at the University of Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1881 and became the first business school in the United States. All of the more than six hundred business schools founded in the nearly century and a half since descend from Wharton.

scholarly journals Better Government, Better Science: The Promise of and Challenges Facing the Evidence-Informed Policy Movement

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 521-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake Bowers ◽  
Paul F. Testa
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Contextual Knowledge ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Behavioral Science ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
New Policies

Collaborations between the academy and governments promise to improve the lives of people, the operations of government, and our understanding of human behavior and public policy. This review shows that the evidence-informed policy movement consists of two main threads: ( a) an effort to invent new policies using insights from the social and behavioral science consensus about human behavior and institutions and ( b) an effort to evaluate the success of governmental policies using transparent and high-integrity research designs such as randomized controlled trials. We argue that the problems of each approach may be solved or at least well addressed by teams that combine the two. We also suggest that governmental actors ought to want to learn about why a new policy works as much as they want to know that the policy works. We envision a future evidence-informed public policy practice that ( a) involves cross-sector collaborations using the latest theory plus deep contextual knowledge to design new policies, ( b) applies the latest insights in research design and statistical inference for causal questions, and ( c) is focused on assessing explanations as much as on discovering what works. The evidence-informed public policy movement is a way that new data, new questions, and new collaborators can help political scientists improve our theoretical understanding of politics and also help our policy partners to improve the practice of government itself.

The Oxford Handbook of Prisons and Imprisonment

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Focal Points ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Prison Programs ◽  
Specific Deterrence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Behavioral Science ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Source Of Information

The Oxford Handbook on Prisons and Imprisonment provides a rich source of information on institutional corrections around the world, covering the most critical issues facing both inmates and prison staff. The contributors offer theoretically informed and critical discussions of these issues that facilitate more objective and realistic assessments of related problems and their possible solutions. The handbook is the first original volume on prisons and prisoners to cover topics relevant to both the social and behavioral sciences with equal depth paid to each area. Focusing on the impact of these issues on the philosophies of incarceration (retribution, general and specific deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation) is also unique to a single volume, providing a larger picture of their implications. Included are updated discussions of the always popular topics such as conditions of confinement and prisoner subcultures and topics that have taken or are destined to take greater priority in the field such as inmate victimization, special offender populations, prison programs, prisoner re-entry, and privatization. The handbook is divided into six sections corresponding to topic areas identified as major focal points of discussion and research in the field. As such, it provides a single source that bridges social and behavioral science perspectives, providing students with a comprehensive understanding of these topics while providing academics with a knowledge base that will more effectively inform their own research. For practitioners, particularly those in the treatment sector, the book provides an excellent overview of best program practices that are empirically based and research-driven.

scholarly journals United States Federal Agency Response to the National Academies Workshop on Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
William T. Riley ◽  
Arthur Lupia ◽  
William Klein ◽  
Fay L. Cook
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Graduate Training ◽  
Federal Agency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Behavioral Sciences ◽  
Key Points ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Behavioral Science ◽  
Workforce Needs

With support from federal agency members of the United States National Science and Technology Council’s Social and Behavioral Science subcommittee (SBS), the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) held a workshop in June, 2017 (NASEM, 2017) on Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences to identify how SBS graduate education could be adapted to changing workforce needs. Key points from this workshop included greater training in interdisciplinary team science, communicating science, and quantitative skills as well as increasing diversity of SBS trainees and graduates. In response to this workshop, the SBS subcommittee describes the relevance of the key points from the workshop on the social and behavioral science workforce needs in the United States (US) federal government and the efforts of the various federal agencies to augment graduate training to address important research, practice, policy and administrative needs of the government.

Pavlov in the Classroom: An Interview with Robert A. Rescorla

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-286
Author(s):  
James E. Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Academic Computing ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Graduate Seminars ◽  
The University ◽  
Associate Director

James E. Freeman (JF) is Associate Professor of Psychology and Associate Director of Academic Computing at Denison University (Granville, OH). He teaches courses in research methods, behavioral science statistics, general psychology, learning, and psychology of Blacks. Robert A. Rescorla (RR) is the James Skinner Professor of Science and Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA). He teaches undergraduate classes in learning and research experience as well as graduate seminars for the psychology department. Rescorla has served as president of the Eastern Psychological Association and is well-known for his experimental and theoretical work on classical conditioning.

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