Finance and Fear: Sentiment, Media, and Financial Markets During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This thesis aims to build on existing research of market psychology and the effect of sentiment on financial markets. The main objective of this study is to determine the ability of investors to make rational decisions during the most recent period of high sentiment. The anomalies that have occurred in the stock market can be better understood by market psychology which focuses on the biases and social factors that influence investors. The media is a newly relevant factor impacting the volume of sentiment present in the market. A review of literature reveals that many studies of sentiment and financial market’s conclude that emotion has a promitment influence on investors decision. The current pandemic has had detrimental effects on human life and human livelihood. A unique economic situation has emerged as uncertainty increased and resulted in extreme volatility in financial markets that cannot be explained by mainstream financial theories and rational decision making alone. This thesis expands on recent literature about the pandemic and attempts to understand the market movements by looking at a range of explanatory data reflecting panic, sentiment, fake news, and infodemics in the media alongside measures of fundamental economic conditions to assess irrational decisions during the pandemic. I will use these measures to test sentiment and the media\u27s significance on the S&P500 and the 10 year treasury yield in the US for 2020 and 2021. This model identifies when sentiment has the most influence on investment decisions and how. Furthermore, I evaluate how investors treat the bond market differently than the stock market

Unrealistic Optimism in the Pursuit of Academic Success

Although the ability to evaluate one’s own knowledge and performance is critical to learning, the correlation between students’ self-evaluation and actual performance measures is modest at best. In this study we examine the effect of offering extra credit for students’ accurate prediction (self-accuracy) of their performance on four exams in two semester-long classes on Personality. The courses emphasized the role of self-awareness. Despite these motivational interventions and performance feedback, there was minimal change in accuracy over the semester; a large proportion of students remained unrealistically optimistic about their performance in the face of evidence to the contrary. Moreover, inaccurately inflated confidence was related to poorer academic performance. A small minority of students improved in accuracy and exam performance over the each of the courses, offering a potentially useful source of comparison for addressing unrealistic optimism. We discuss the findings as reflecting the powerful influence of protecting self-esteem and suggest the need for realistic self-appraisal as a factor in academic succes

Setting the Mood for Critical Thinking in the Classroom

Most current efforts to enhance critical thinking focus on skills practice and training. The empirical research from the fields of cognition and affect sciences suggest that positive mood, even when transiently induced, can have beneficial effects on cognitive flexibility and problem solving. We undertook this study to test this hypothesis in a practical setting. Using an A-B-A-B within subject design, we measured the impact of positive (versus neutral) mood on critical thinking demonstrated on four essay exams in an undergraduate course in personality. There was a significant enhancing effect of positive mood on critical thinking in female students, but not in male students. We discuss possible sex differences that may account for the partial support of the mood-critical thinking effect

Draw a picture of yourself learning math: What pre-service teachers’ self-portraits illustrate about their complex relationships with mathematics

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that may influence pre-service teachers’ relationships with mathematics. Elementary pre-service teachers who were enrolled in a mathematics methods course (n = 52) wrote a letter to math and drew a picture of themselves learning math. The self-portraits were analyzed by a team of undergraduate student researchers and teacher educators to identify themes related to the types of emotions, experiences, and situations displayed. The results of the self-portrait analysis indicated a higher percentage of negative emotions as compared to positive and neutral emotions. Additionally, the portraits indicated the influence of early elementary experiences on developing the participants’ math identity and relationships with mathematics. Implications for teacher preparation coursework and elementary mathematics pedagogy are discussed

What pre-service teachers want “Math” to know: Examining self-identified relationships and critical experiences with mathematics

This study examines the self-reported critical experiences that undergraduate pre-service teachers (PSTs) choose to share when writing a letter directly to “Math” and creating a self-portrait of a math learning experience. The letters sought to initiate a personification of math and the self-portraits to further explore math learning experiences of the PSTs. The letters and portraits were examined to understand the types of math relationships and critical events PSTs reported and their impact on PST identity and agency as a future teacher. Portraits were analyzed by PST research partners. The relationship between the categories of critical events and mindset was explored

Gender and affect: linguistic predictors of successful academic performance among economically disadvantaged first year college students

IIndividuals entering college from disadvantaged economic backgrounds often face multiple obstacles to successful academic performance. Nonetheless, many such students are successful. In this study, we explore the personal characteristics of students from poverty who do well academically in comparison to their economic peers who were less successful academically. Pre-admission, written applications were analyzed using the computerized linguistic analysis tool, LIWC, to predict first semester GPA in a group of 48 students, all of whom came from economic backgrounds that were 150% or more below Federal guidelines. Significant poverty level and sex differences were found. Men’s GPA was highly correlated with Total Word Count, while women’s GPA was significantly correlated with Reward and Tentativeness. Most striking was the strong positive correlation between GPA and Positive Affect among women from the lowest economic group. The findings suggest further research to clarify and confirm the role of cognitive styles and affect in academic performance as moderated by both sex and degree of poverty, even among those traditionally viewed as belonging to a homogenous economic group

‘Buying a path’: rethinking resistance in Rwanda

In this essay, I tell the story of Jean-Baptiste, the president of a motorcycle taxi drivers’ co-operative, and his struggle against the machinations of certain high officials in Kigali City Council. Crucial to this story is the way in which Jean-Baptiste’s attempts to retain his position in the face of powerful opposition pit certain agencies of Rwanda’s party state against others. I use this ethnographic narrative to question the way in which much scholarship on popular resistance in Rwanda, drawing on Scott’s simplified opposition between the powerful and the powerless, opposes ‘ordinary Rwandans’ to ‘the state’ as monolithic entities with opposed interests. Theorising Jean-Baptiste’s story in terms of Rwandan idioms of relative power and influence, I suggest that such a Manichean view of power and resistance in Rwanda oversimplifies social realities. I propose instead a model of power and resistance that sees the state as a field of capacities and possible relationships that it presents for certain people, where ‘paths’ to influence and security may by ‘bought’ – especially, but not exclusively, by those who are ‘strong’ and ‘high’

Setting the Mood for Critical Thinking in the Classroom

Most current efforts to enhance critical thinking focus on skills practice and training. The empirical research from the fields of cognition and affect sciences suggest that positive mood, even when transiently induced, can have beneficial effects on cognitive flexibility and problem solving. We undertook this study to test this hypothesis in a practical setting. Using an A-B-A-B within subject design, we measured the impact of positive (versus neutral) mood on critical thinking demonstrated on four essay exams in an undergraduate course in personality. There was a significant enhancing effect of positive mood on critical thinking in female students, but not in male students. We discuss possible sex differences that may account for the partial support of the mood-critical thinking effect