Categorie: Psyblog

Het afgelopen academiejaar was de expertisecel Psychologie, Technologie & Samenleving betrokken bij het begeleiden of aanbieden van verschillende bachelorproefprojecten met een focus op het selectief en doordacht inzitten van technologie voor de (klinische) praktijk. Een overzicht van de verschillende projecten is hieronder te vinden. Klik op een titel voor een korte omschrijving van elk van de projecten.

• AppStore voor welzijn en geestelijke gezondheid
• Beeldbellen bij psychologisch hulpverleners
• Dierenfobieën aanpakken in augmented reality
• Geheime netwerken op sociale media
• m-Path – optimalisatie van registratie
• Online aanbod binnen studie- en studentenbegeleiding
• Telediagnostiek
• Virtual Reality in woonzorgcentra

Studenten Applied Psychology & Technology schreven afgelopen semester (2021-2022) samen blogberichten. De 3 beste berichten, over sociale media & het lichaamsbeeld van vrouwen, online reclame & online shoppinggedrag en  Pokémon Go kan je hier nalezen.

by Imaan Asselman & Noelia González Kringhs

Pokémon Go is a mobile game application, available for free, that came out in 2016 and instantly became a global phenomenon. It is an augmented reality game where users are meant to catch virtual Pokémon creatures in real places. The more they explore the real world, the more chances they have at finding and catching different Pokémon. The game encourages its players to walk to Pokéstops, usually landmarks, where they can get Pokéballs that they will need to catch Pokémon. The game also has virtual gyms where the users can battle each other (Lateef, Chong, Sethi, & Loh, 2018; Freeman, Chau, & Mihrshahi, 2017).

It was a big hype when the game first came out, but what are the pros and cons of this app?
It has been said that games can cause social isolation, but not this one. To play this game you have to go outside, interact with other people and even walk some distances for certain challenges. There have been various studies done to see what the impact is of Pokémon Go on mental health and most of them were positive. One study quoted: “Pokémon Go was positively associated with increased positive affect, nostalgic reverie, friendship formation, and friendship intensification” (Lateef et al., p. 244, 2018). It also mentioned that there was a decrease in depression among people who played this game because of the physical activity.

Augmented reality (AR) games like Pokémon Go have given some new insights in how people with social anxiety can possibly be treated. AR has already been proved proven to be successful in treating people with certain phobias, like arachnophobia, by exposing them indirectly to their fear through a phone application. People who are socially anxious can get in contact with other people through Pokémon Go in a more exciting manner. This way, it can make the experience more bearable (Lateef et al., 2018).
The same thing goes for people who suffer from hikikomori. “Hikikomori in Japan is the phenomenon of social withdrawal that affects hundreds of thousands of individuals, in which the individual shuts his/herself in their room, generally at their family’s home, for several months or even years without engaging in social relationships” (Tajan, 2015, p. 326). A lot of research still needs to be done, but some studies say that Pokémon Go and other AR-games can encourage people to go outside to play instead of isolating themselves inside. It may not cure the people who suffer from this condition but it is certainly a first step (Kato, Teo, Tateno, Watabe, Kubo & Kanba, 2016).

The impact of Pokémon Go on mental health wasn’t the only thing researchers were interested in. Some of them also looked at how physical activity can be influenced by this game application. The opinions were divided. A number of studies said that there wasn’t a significant impact on the physical health of people while others proved the opposite. There was an increase in steps shown on a daily basis, because of Pokémon Go, in some studies. Sadly, these were only temporary and strongly depend on how much people play this game, but this shows that it is possible to alter people’s behavior through an AR-game and positively affect their health. This is a huge implication for the health department as it motivates people to change their lifestyle positively (Althoff, White, & Horvitz, 2016; Watanabe, Kawakami, Imamura, Inoue, Shimazu, Yoshikawa & Tsutsumi, 2017).
However, the game also seems to have some disadvantages. There have been reports of dangerous (physical) incidents as a result of the game. People have been involved in traffic accidents because either the driver of the vehicle or the pedestrian were distracted by Pokémon Go.
The game threatens the safety and physical well-being of its players, mostly the children, as they can be tracked via the geo-locating feature and robbed or attacked. It can easily provide predators with information about children’s location and whereabouts.

In some cases the Pokéstops were located on private property which resulted in trespassing. Some property owners did not mind, while others did. Some players trespassed accidentally, because they were not aware they were on private property, but others did it intentionally. This poses questions as to how far the players are willing to go to play.

The app can be time-consuming so to not hurt other activities, the users sacrifice sleep. This in turn can affect their (overall) health negatively. Corporations saw the popularity of the game as an opportunity to promote things that may endanger public health, like fast food.
There was a fast increase and decrease of the game’s popularity, the number of active users decreased significantly only a month after it came out (Lateef et al., 2018; Freeman et al., 2017; Watanabe et al., 2017).

We can conclude that Pokémon Go has its advantages in many ways, but it isn’t 100% perfect. Overall it certainly turned out to be helpful in terms of mental health and the improvement of the physical health of people. Still, a lot of research has to be done about this game and other AR -games, but based on this information we can say that Pokémon Go can be a promising tool to increase the well-being and the physical condition of people.

References
Althoff, T., White, R. W., & Horvitz, E. (2016). Influence of Pokémon Go on Physical Activity: Study and Implications. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18(12), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.6759

Freeman, B., Chau, J., & Mihrshahi, S. (2017). Why the public health sector couldn’t create Pokémon Go. Public Health Research & Practice, 27(3), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.17061/phrp2731724

Kato, T. A., Teo, A. R., Tateno, M., Watabe, M., Kubo, H., & Kanba, S. (2016). Can Pokémon GO rescue shut-ins (hikikomori) from their isolated world? Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 71(1), 75–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/pcn.12481

Lateef, F., Chong, Y., Sethi, D. K., & Loh, C. H. Y. (2018). Going forward with Pokemon Go. Journal of Emergencies, Trauma, and Shock, 11(4), 243–246. https://doi.org/10.4103/jets.jets_87_17

Tajan, N. (2015). Social withdrawal and psychiatry: A comprehensive review of Hikikomori. Neuropsychiatrie de l’Enfance et de l’Adolescence, 63(5), 324–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurenf.2015.03.008

Watanabe, K., Kawakami, N., Imamura, K., Inoue, A., Shimazu, A., Yoshikawa, T., … Tsutsumi, A. (2017). Pokémon GO and psychological distress, physical complaints, and work performance among adult workers: a retrospective cohort study. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11176-2

Studenten Applied Psychology & Technology schreven afgelopen semester (2021-2022) samen blogberichten. De 3 beste berichten, over sociale media & het lichaamsbeeld van vrouwen, online reclame & online shoppinggedrag en  Pokémon Go kan je hier nalezen.

By Lotte Sleurs and Hanne Braeckmans

Due to the special circumstances of CoViD-19, staying at home, watching television and surfing on the Internet became one of our main activities. With the Christmas holidays in sight, we spend even more time exploring the online shops to find the best presents for friends and family. While we are comfortably sitting at home, the one advertisement after the other of ‘the best present for your loved ones’ pops up on our screens. Strange, the ads show the exact things you like or the things you were searching for friends and family before. Is it possible that these ads influence your online shopping behaviour and what you buy in the end? These questions will be answered in this blog post, where we dig a little deeper in the consequences of online advertisements on our online shopping experience.

Online shopping and ads, what’s that?
First, let’s take a look at the two main subjects namely online shopping and online advertisements. For many customers, online shopping has a lot of benefits. It’s not only fast and brings a lot of convenience; it’s also in many cases cheaper than the local stores. Moreover, the variety of products on the Internet is often much larger than offline shopping. Many reasons to sit behind your computer instead of putting on your shoes and go to the real stores (Rakuten Super Logistics, 2018).

And what about the online advertisements? As you all probably know, advertisements are notices or announcements in a public medium like television, radio, internet, events, … promoting a product, service or event with the intent to inform or influence people who receive it. Hence, the main goal of ads is persuading people to buy the product of the ads (The Economic Times, s.d.). The difference between ‘normal’ advertising and online advertising is that online advertising only uses the Internet to deliver promotional messages to consumers (Wikipedia, 2020). The big question is: how do these online ads influence us when we are shopping online?

The use of algorithms
By using ads, companies compete with each other to draw the consumers’ attention. Advertisers are constantly looking to adapt their messages to the personal interests and needs of their potential customers. Mainly, they do that by using smart computer algorithms. How? To attract the consumer and form a positive perception toward the ad, algorithms search the most interesting products for you as an individual. By screening all of your online activity, algorithms detect your interests and base the ads that will pop on your screen on that. By using a range of data points, which can include demographic characters, online behavioural information and personally identifiable information (PII), algorithms know what kind of online personality you have. In that way, these algorithms will send ads that are adjusted to your personal online profile (Singh, 2020).

Because ads show you things that you like, the chance that you will click on the ad will increase. In other words, the fact that you receive advertisements doesn’t influence your shopping behaviour, but the algorithms that choose the content of the ads will influence it! The chance that you will buy a product that the computer chooses, based on your previous searches, is much higher than if the ads are the same for everyone. Research of Aqsa and Kartini (2015) confirms that online advertising has a significant influence on a consumer’s attitude towards a product, mainly because the algorithms choose what you like. Let me give you an example of how these algorithms work. You are looking for a pair of new sneakers. After browsing on a number of web shops, your Facebook starts to haunt you for weeks with pictures of sneakers with tempting buy buttons. The more you see these sneakers, the more you want them. A recognisable situation, right?

To conclude we can say that online advertising undeniably influences our online shopping behaviour because algorithms personalize the ads we receive. You could say it makes the searching process for Christmas presents a lot easier but be careful. The personalised ads increase the chance you will actually buy all these tempting products even when you don’t need them. Forewarned is forearmed!

References
Scientific articles
Aqsa, M. & Kartini, D. (2015). Impact Of Online Advertising On Consumer Attitudes And Interests Buy Online (Survey On Students Of Internet Users In Makassar). International journal of scientific & technology research, 4(4).

Huseynov, F., & Yıldırım, S. Ö. (2016). Internet users’ attitudes toward business-to-consumer online shopping: a survey. Information Development, 32(3), 452–465. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266666914554812

Iweama, V. O., Iweka, A., & Henson, A. (2018). Effects of online advertising on consumer buying behaviour; study of Nigeria police academy cadets. Polac Int’l Journal of Economics and Mgt Science, 4(1).

Senecal, S., Kalczynski, P. J., & Nantel, J. (2005). Consumers’ decision-making process and their online shopping behavior: a clickstream analysis. Journal of Business Research, 58(11), 1599–1608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2004.06.003

Popular articles
New America. (2020). The Algorithms Behind Digital Advertising. Op newamerica.org [Website]. Geraadpleegd op 18 december 2020 via https://www.newamerica.org/oti/blog/algorithms-behind-digital-advertising/

Online advertising. (2020, 20 december). Wikipedia. Geraadpleegd op 18 december 2020 via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_advertising

Powles, B.J., Bigdeli, A. & Sarrafzadeh, H. (2009). Systems and methods for targeted advertising. Op Google patents. Geraadpleegd op 15 december 2020 via https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/4b/4a/fb/292fc8fc557c51/US20090192874A1.pdf

Rakuten Super Logistics. (2018). Three key advantages of online shopping. Op rakutensl.com [Website]. Geraadpleegd op 17 december 2020 via https://www.rakutensl.com/post/three-key-advantages-of-online-shopping

The Economic Times. (2020). Definition of ‘Advertising’. Op economictimes.indiatimes.com [Website]. Geraadpleegd op 17 december 2020 via https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/advertising

Vader, C. (2016). De evolutie van reclame: van advertentie tot algoritme. The Big Story, 6 (48). Geraadpleegd op 17 december 2020 via https://thebigstory.nl/evolutie-adverteren-native-naar-algoritme/

Studenten Applied Psychology & Technology schreven afgelopen semester (2021-2022) samen blogberichten. De 3 beste berichten, over sociale media & het lichaamsbeeld van vrouwen, online reclame & online shoppinggedrag en Pokémon Go.

by Ayten Köksal & Johannes Allgeier

In the last decades social media has become one of the most popular tools used worldwide. That is because of the multiple opportunities they have to offer for individuals. More than one third of people worldwide use social media actively. In the western world this even goes up to 79 percent. On one hand, social media platforms are extremely useful tools and the benefits people can take out of it are enormously. On the other hand, there are a lot of difficulties which arise throughout the growth of social media which some people have to face (Kircaburun et al., 2019).

In this blogpost we focus on the influence these social media platforms have on the body image of women. The body image of women gets strongly influenced because they have the possibility to compare themselves to others. The only thing required? Internet access!

Mostly, these images follow a body ideal that has been created by society. The content creator will only upload the perfect picture, according to the given ideals, which creates a fake reality about the appearance. These ideals nowadays changed a lot throughout the decades. The ideal is considered to be thin as in below average weight. Therefore, many women constantly compare themselves upwards on social media.

This appearance-based comparison between people is normal and usually occurs in the stage of the young adolescence, which means that especially generation Z, who grew up with social media learned to compare themselves based on the body ideal (Lewallen & Behm-Morawitz, 2016; Tiggemann & Anderberg, 2020).

But this comparing has a big influence on young women. These idealized images do not only lead to body dissatisfaction but also contribute to other negative outcomes such as lower academic performances, increased interest in cosmetic surgery, depression and eating disorders. With 79% of people using social media, it is best to avoid these concerns and find ways to prevent it.

First steps were taken by putting disclaimer type labels on pictures. These labels were put on idealized social media images to make women realize they’re highly edited and so that they would stop comparing themselves to the images they would see. These are used on Instagram where you can see what filters were applied to edit the images.

Unfortunately, this seems to be ineffective. The reason behind it is that people tend to reflect themselves to others similar to themselves. Women perceive the images to be relatable and possible for themselves to reach and continue to compare themselves to the images. Disclaimers are not strong enough to make women stop to compare themselves to fake images. Stronger measures need to be taken, but like what (Fardouly & Holland, 2018)?
Reportedly, women stopped comparing themselves if they believed it to be artificial, realizing that the images were enhanced in such a way with different techniques, that it is not reachable for women in everyday life. If women have insight in how drastically these images are enhanced they believe that these are not real, not relatable and definitely unreachable, the social comparison would stop.

Another way to block the comparison is by making women realize that they cannot compare it with their own body, because the average women is destined to be heavier than the women in those images because of their genes. Realizing that diet and exercise will not lead to that ideal because of their genes stops the process of comparison (Posavac et al., 2001).
But how this could be put into practice on social media, is food for thought.

References

Fardouly, J., & Holland, E. (2018). Social media is not real life: The effect of attaching disclaimer-type labels to idealized social media images on women’s body image and mood. New Media & Society, 20(11), 4311–4328. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818771083

Kircaburun, K., Griffiths, M. D., & Billieux, J. (2019). Childhood Emotional Maltreatment and Problematic Social Media Use Among Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Body Image Dissatisfaction. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 18(6), 1536–1547. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-0054-6

Lewallen, J., & Behm-Morawitz, E. (2016). Pinterest or Thinterest?: Social Comparison and Body Image on Social Media. Social Media + Society, 2(1), 205630511664055. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116640559

Posavac, H. D., Posavac, S. S., & Weigel, R. G. (2001). Reducing the Impact of Media Images on Women At Risk For Body Image Disturbance: Three Targeted Interventions. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 20(3), 324–340. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.20.3.324.22308

Tiggemann, M., & Anderberg, I. (2019). Social media is not real: The effect of ‘Instagram vs reality’ images on women’s social comparison and body image. New Media & Society, 22(12), 2183–2199. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819888720