Hi,
I am Chra Darwesh, a junior Government & Politics student. My research
project aims to try to advance the understanding of ways in which personality
ideals were redefined or maintained before the rise of the
"selfie". I utilize existing studies, like David Riesman's famous
Lonely Crowd, and primary materials dealing with concepts like modesty,
self-esteem, gratitude and narcissism. I am hoping that conclusions from this
research project will help provide information and a better understanding of American
Culture and the various variables shifting overtime that gives society its
character.
I began my research ventures during my senior year of
high school working on a senatorial reelection campaign and my interest only
peaked from there. Going into my first couple of years at George Mason, various
opportunities led me to the works of Dr. Peter Stearns and looking at his
widespread accomplishments I was amazed at how someone could venture so far out
from their field of work inspiring and encouraging me to be more creative and
open-minded when looking at different works. On a weekly basis I am looking for
data as well as configuring studies already done with ones currently being
worked on while attending weekly meetings to keep up to date with other ongoing
projects in my group alongside of touching in and making progress reports with
Dr. Stearns.
This
project has shown me that there are many ways to interpret data and a lot of
pieces can be argued and seen both ways for example while a peeking graph might
mean the increase of an x variable, it could also be shown as a decrease of a y
variable. I am looking forward to seeing where my findings will lead and am
excited to continue to conduct original research hopefully adding something to
the field for the university.
