Investigating the Development of Religious Cognition in Hindu and Muslim Children in India (Fluency at reading and writing Hindi required)
Mahesh Srinivasan, Professor
Psychology
Applications for Fall 2024 are closed for this project.
This project explores how Hindu and Muslim children in India develop religious concepts and beliefs. Our project is part of a larger international, cross-cultural study. We are interested in questions including how children develop concepts of religious and supernatural entities, how children reason about religious norms, how religious beliefs are passed down through generations, and more. Because this project involves doing translations in Hindi, a native level of fluency in spoken and written Hindi is required. Data collection for the project will also take place in Gujarat, India, so any experience or knowledge with this region of India is valued.
Role: Students will work closely with the professor, lab manager, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and each other, and will be involved in many facets of the research process.
This will include reading relevant theoretical and empirical papers, helping with Hindi survey translations, providing suggestions on experimental items, working with a team of research assistants in India over Zoom, and processing and analyzing pilot data. Lastly, students will have the opportunity to attend lab meetings and to present on the work they have done each semester.
Qualifications: 7 REQUIREMENTS:
1) Strong interest in cognitive development.
2) Have taken coursework in at least two of the following: Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, or Statistics.
3) Strong attention to detail.
4) Strong organizational skills.
5) Strong communication skills, and a native level of fluency in spoken and written English AND Hindi.
6) Have visited our lab website (lcdlab.berkeley.edu) and read about our research before applying.
7) Have visited the Developing Belief Network website (developingbelief.com), i.e. the home to the larger international, cross-cultural study our project is part of, and read about the general research of the network before applying.
TIME COMMITMENT:
1) 9-11 hours of work per week.
2) Two semesters of work with the lab. In your application, please specify whether you are able to continue working this summer and/or the following fall or spring.
ADDITIONAL PREFERRED SKILLS (Not Required, but if you have them, please talk about these skills in your application):
1) Experience translating English to Hindi and Hindi to English.
2) Computer Programming experience (Python, R, Javascript, HTML, etc.).
3) Experience with statistical data analysis.
4) Experience with Microsoft Suite.
5) Experience with Qualtrics.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Nafia Rahaman, Staff Researcher
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Off-Campus Research Site: Hybrid Model: Work can be done remotely. Some meetings may be held in person at 2121 Berkeley Way West (the Psychology building).
Related website: http://developingbelief.com
Related website: http://developingbelief.com