Berkeley Undergraduate Journal

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s autocratic techniques have pushed Venezuela closer to authoritarianism and farther from democracy. These techniques involve newer tactics that build on his predecessor’s success in suppressing democracy and work quietly and efficiently to disrupt elections. Dodging accountability for his hand in Venezuela’s democratic backsliding, Maduro avoids explicit breaches of international codes and laws, choosing instead to operate within the grey areas of misinformation and information manipulation around which legal consensus is still being formed. The Venezuelan 2020 parliamentary elections provide a clear and compelling image of Maduro’s use of misinformation on social media platforms to threaten election integrity and erode democracy. While Maduro still relies on traditional routes to suppress dissent and maintain authority, the development of discrete, targeted demonstrations of autocratic power on social media platforms must be taken seriously for the threat they pose to global democracy.

Currently, mental health clinicians lack training in spiritual and religious competence, while counseling psychology research does not give adequate attention to the spiritual and religious concerns of clients seeking mental health counseling. In order to improve the quality of mental healthcare, I argue for more research and training to better understand clients’ spiritual and religious needs. I review existing approaches to mental healthcare that integrate spirituality and religion, then outline my own survey- and interview-based research. My study assesses clients’ levels of religiosity and spirituality, discovers the role of spirituality and religion in their mental health, and finds out their experiences working with mental health clinicians. My data indicates that spiritual and religious interest often intersects with defining life events, such as traumatic experiences and existential crises, and that mental health clinicians should be better prepared to understand the role of spirituality and religion to support clients’ psychological and spiritual health.

This paper provides an empirical hypothesis test and partial verification of the “algorithmic folk theory” of “reaching the wrong audience.” This user folk theory claims that content posted to TikTok can sometimes become sequestered to a hostile audience, resulting in a sharp influx of harassment and oppositional comments. To test this theory, this paper employs a graphical analysis to identify trends in interaction rates, comments over time, and comment sentiment. The data collected consisted of 1,455 posts and 454,540 comments, which were then evaluated using a natural language processing (NLP) sentiment analysis tool for a total of 297,009,882 effective observations of viewer sentiment response. Using this data, this paper employs a time-series analysis to identify a “resurrecting” post behavior characterized by a sudden increase in engagement of an otherwise “dead” TikTok post as far as ten months after the content’s initial post date. Further, the findings highlighted how this “resurgent behavior” would commonly occur when the sudden influx of engagement contained either distinctly positive or negative comment sentiment. These findings suggest the existence of “audience sentiment sequestering,” explained as the algorithmic restriction of viewership to a specific audience type and a core mechanism of the user folk theory of “reaching the wrong audience.” Lastly, this paper proposes a new theoretical algorithmic phenomenon, the anti-preference theory, to explain why automated algorithmic decision-making may cause a user’s content to “reach the wrong audience” and remain stuck there. This theory suggests that the recommendation algorithm implemented on TikTok is impartial to the positive or negative sentiment of a viewer’s comment but still susceptible to the user’s propensity to comment. In conjunction, these traits can cause the recommendation algorithm to “misinterpret” a user’s negative comment as a successful recommendation for that viewer. This “misinterpretation” can create a feedback loop, where the recommendation algorithm will show the content to other hostile users with similar “anti-preferences.” Expectedly, this hostile audience would share a similar high propensity to leave hostile comments of their own, thus restarting the loop. From the content creator’s side, the anti-preference phenomenon can appear as a sudden and seemingly systematic increase in hostile comments, similar to the experiences described within the “reaching the wrong audience” folk theory.

This thesis delves into the Islamic Republic of Iran’s intricate construction and reinforcement of a cis-heteronormative national identity with an emphasis on the contemporary “Woman, Life, Freedom, Queer, Trans, Liberty” revolution. The study highlights the complex web of power dynamics, surveillance mechanisms, and regulatory frameworks that operate both within the public and private spheres. By utilizing a Foucauldian framework of the “inner-panopticon,” this research exposes how the Iranian state’s systematic imposition of heteronormative values extends beyond the confines of legal and social regulations, permeating the very fabric of individual consciousness. The paper contends that the omnipresent “War on Sex,” a strategic deployment of sexuality as a political tool, has fostered an environment of fear and self-policing, particularly for non-male-conforming individuals. As a result, this paper also focuses on severe social marginalization of queer and trans Iranians within Iran and its diasporic communities. With a critical lens rooted in a queer anti-Orientalist framework, this paper scrutinizes the role of the invisible panopticon in perpetuating gender and sexuality policing within an authoritarian regime. Part 1 of the study establishes the theoretical underpinning of the inner-panopticon, contextualizes the War on Sex within the Islamic Republic’s cis-heteropatriarchal agenda, and conducts a historical analysis of the nation’s sexual economy. Part 2 examines the panoptic institutions, including the legal penal code, the educational system, and the enforcement of compulsory hijab, as prominent tools employed by the regime to reinforce its ideological control. By elucidating these mechanisms, the research offers a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted ways in which state-sanctioned oppression is perpetuated and how it impacts the cultural and societal discourse surrounding sex and sexuality in Iran.

Though Kenya has been democratizing since the 1990s, this progress has stagnated when concerned with women’s rights to inheritance and land ownership—especially when comparing Muslim and non-Muslim women. The prevalence of legal pluralism, in which multiple judicial systems exist, navigating between common law courts and Islamic courts proves to be a greater challenge when dealing with inheritance. Under religious dictation, Muslim women are entitled to only half of what their brothers are entitled to in matters of inheritance, while non-Muslim women and their brothers have equal access to inheritance. An example from the Indian Hindu Succession Act of 1956 demonstrates the magnanimous power equal inheritance gives women; namely, a chance to engage independently in the economy, contribute to the labor force and accelerate modernization. By following a similar model and reinstating equal access to inheritance for all women, regardless of religious affiliation, Kenyan women too can have increased access to land ownership rights. These rights allow them to become autonomous and independent players in the local economy and contribute to greater productivity for the state along with more economic mobility for themselves and their families.

Despite the popularity and efficacy of laws that criminalize consumers in the sex industry, adoption of such policies is slow and limited. In other cases, countries act to adopt legal frameworks that may leave sex workers unprotected from violence or harm. How do we explain such different choices across different countries? To address this, I undertake a political and economic view of sex work, which refers specifically to prostitution in this study, and subsequently investigate political and economic characteristics across 85 countries as factors that may affect their selection of different types of sex work policies. Furthermore, I examine the impact of diverse political value systems as well as economic conditions. The project employs a multinomial logistic regression model to examine the relationship between these factors and the adoption of five different sex work policies. The analysis of data demonstrated that total female participation in the labor force was the most influential factor, followed by civil liberties and political rights, across the countries included in the study.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade, revoking the federal protection of the right to receive an abortion, and leaving abortion policymaking to state legislatures. Approximately thirteen states have already enforced abortion bans as of April 2023, while some states are still struggling with legal challenges of the ban. Across the U.S., individuals with the capacity for pregnancy are left without legal protection to such a necessary medical procedure. However, abortion access is only the surface of what is taken away from pregnant people with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Exacerbated by race, class, and location of residence, pregnant people face major health, socioeconomic, and social losses that ultimately contribute to a poorer quality of life and overall setback in the movement towards reproductive justice. This paper explores the effects of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, by examining the realities of marginalized groups through the lenses of social welfare, public health, politics, and reproductive justice.

Psycholinguistics, the bridge between language and cognition, has evolved through a rich history of theories and debates, shaping our comprehension of the human mind. But what role does language play in cognition? Language is far beyond just mere communication, as it molds cognition, perception, memory, and problem-solving skills. At its core, the study of language acquisition stands as a foundation for the study of psycholinguistics, spanning diverse theoretical landscapes from behaviorist theories to nativist perspectives. This paper aims to offer insights from a myriad of disciplines, offering a holistic understanding of how language is intertwined with cognitive development. Drawing upon the fields of psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and anthropology, it unveils the profound impact language has in shaping the trajectory of cognitive development. This interdisciplinary approach illuminates the mechanisms by which language influences cognitive processes, underscoring the symbiotic relationship between language and the development of the human mind. It indicates the importance of interdisciplinary research in understanding the marriage between language and cognition, ultimately revealing the magic behind the human mind.

Ancient India has a strong history of accepting, highlighting, and celebrating queer identities, genders, homosexuality, and polyamory—often permanently commemorating these individuals in carvings, paintings, and other forms of art at Hindu temples and holy sites. Transgender, transexual, and homosexual gods are not only extremely popular, but also significant pillars of Hinduism and holy scriptures. As colonialism spread and the British Raj asserted more power over Indian culture, Western frameworks and definitions of “civil society” that mandated heteronormativity led to the outlawing of homosexuality under Section 377 of 1861. Although India gained independence in 1947, such discriminatory attitudes against queer people became embedded in Indian society and amplified over time—permanently altering the public’s perception and opinions on homosexuality. On September 6, 2018, the Indian Supreme Court ruling eradicated Section 377 and decriminalized queer sexual activities—a major advancement in the ongoing cultural decolonization of India and the growing LGBTQ+ rights social movements. These efforts are magnified by the growth of more queer characters in Bollywood movies and media and by creating spaces to openly discuss queerness in a socially acceptable manner. Advancing queer rights in India is part of the larger structural decolonization of the Western norms that were forcibly embedded in society through colonialism, and

The Book of the Dead by Muriel Rukeyser represents a collection of poetry riddled with a history of “relative neglect and obscurity.”1 For this reason, discourses surrounding the docupoetic collection often grapple with the ambition required when approaching a complex work addressing temporal tragedy. To contribute to this discourse, the literary research in this paper traverses an intersection with three primary angles: the political, the aesthetic, and the emancipatory. The analysis centers on The Book of the Dead and the modernist poetry that the author of the collection utilizes when portraying a uniquely chilling perspective of one of the most catastrophic industrial disasters in United States history. Understanding the poetry from Rukeyser, however, faces several obstacles given the rejection of literary convention within each stanza. This paper therefore provides necessary historical, sociological, and aesthetic background to contextualize the important discussions on literature and culture that are underscored within The Book of the Dead. Ultimately, the research contends that Rukeyser’s work not only calls for emancipation for the dead, but also the freeing of readers from literary convention in order to confront a tragedy much of society would rather leave behind in history.

The developmental years of adolescence are key to shaping an individual’s identity as they explore their place in the context of different communities they are a part of. Immigrant children may have a unique development of culture and identity because the environments between home and school may differ. Mental health is influenced by the interplay of their relational environment and individual development. The stigma surrounding mental health within the Filipino-American community can contribute to this environment. This can be challenging to balance within the Filipino-American community due to stigma surrounding mental health. Given the colonial mindset from historical contexts, strong filial ties, and mental health disparities within Filipino-American communities, in addition to the lack of disaggregated research done, it is beneficial to further delve into factors that can affect their mental health. Using data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, this paper uses a cultural microsystems model and a colonial mentality model to examine questions about depression. This paper explores what intergenerational factors within parent-child relationships serve as protective factors against depressive symptoms in Filipino-American adolescents and how cultural identities and values interact with these symptoms. Analysis of the data using chi square tests and bivariate correlation regression analyses found the following protective factors against depressive symptom incidence: parental pride for country of birth; viewing the American way of life as strengthening the family; a cohesive family unit; less intergenerational conflict; and parental active listening. These results suggest that cultural and ethnic identity can be protective, if they are not causes of intergenerational conflict. This research supports the need for culturally sensitive mental health interventions as cultural and ethnic identity can have beneficial, grounding qualities that can meet patients where they are. 

Aesthetic experiences influence the way we perceive the world, often at a subliminal level. But relatively little is known about how these aesthetic experiences affect us cognitively and how they shape our identity and improve our well-being. The purpose of this paper is thus to: (1) examine and review the current literature in the emerging field of neuroaesthetics—how the brain responds to beauty and sublime experiences; (2) extrapolate from current literature the properties of beauty and what it means when people perceive something to be beautiful; (3) synthesize the current literature and my own research on the topic to bring more awareness on the health benefits and transcendent power of experiencing awe or sublimity; (4) use the PERMA (positive emotion, engagement, relationship, meaning, achievement) theory of well-being proposed by positive psychologist Martin Seligman to present an action framework I established, acronymed NUMA (nature walks, unconditional love, meditation, affirmative goals). Within this paper, I argue that these perceptually aesthetic experiences (which can happen in a variety of forms such as in nature, artworks, music, or poetry) elicit in us a sense of awe and wonder, which performs a “scale effect” or “overview effect” on us and if experienced regularly could guide us toward living a more meaningful life.

Since 1995, net metering policy has provided a constant incentive for customers of California’s Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs) to install solar panels. Under the IOUs’ net metering programs, customers with solar systems receive a full retail rate credit for each unit of excess energy they generate and export back to the grid. This has allowed customers with an appropriately sized solar system to zero out their electricity bills, applying credits from hours when they generate excess solar energy towards the cost of non-solar energy use. However, in December 2021, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) announced plans to significantly alter net metering policy beginning April 15, 2023. Under their new policy, colloquially referred to as “NEM3,” export credits are aligned with utilities’ avoided costs rather than customers’ retail rates, resulting in a roughly 80% reduction in excess generation compensation. However, NEM3 only applies to new solar customers; customers who interconnected their system before April 15 were grandfathered into a full retail rate net metering program for 20 years, providing a major incentive to install solar before this date. This paper uses a difference-in-differences model approach to estimate the impact of the CPUC’s announced plans to alter net metering programs on solar installation levels. The results suggest that the CPUC’s plans spurred a statistically significant 0.396% point, or 31%, increase in month-over-month installation growth in the IOUs. This increase implies customers are responsive to changes in net metering policy and suggests decreases in Californian residential solar installations post-implementation of NEM3 are likely.