ENACT
Hello from a new LiSC team member!
Jun 20th
My name is Sue Jamison-Powell and I started working in LiSC as a Research Assistant at the beginning of May. I am a psychologist working on the ENACT Project with Shaun Lawson, Conor Linehan and Andy Garbett. I specialise in online social relationships and social networks. My thesis examined the way that social networking websites and social communication technology influences our social relationships and impacts upon the processes involved in developing and maintaining online relationships. I am also very interested in the process of defriending. I recently presented at a Psychology in the Pub meeting at The Showroom in Sheffield where I talked about my research which examined how people decide to defriend others, and their reactions to both defriending and being defriended. It’s an interesting area, and one that is really only pertinent to online relationships; although my theory posits that breaking the connection online (you either are or are not present in someone’s friends’ list on Facebook for instance) is reminiscent of deciding to end a romantic relationship. There doesn’t seem to be any room for weak ties within online social networks, with one of the main reasons given for defriending another being lack of contact or lack of real connection. Where offline acquaintanceships gradually drift apart, on Facebook they have a definite end. A link to my presentation can be found here.
All the researchers working on the ENACT Project recently met up in London. It was a valuable meeting, especially for me, being a newcomer to the group. It was great to see the initial results of our first work package and see how well our individual work packages fit together. The ENACT Project is using a social media platform to deliver online therapy. Existing online delivery works very well, with similar results to offline methods of delivery, however we are planning to introduce social media elements which will encourage engagement with the package and allow for interactivity between users. I was delighted to accept the position with LiSC as it will allow me to draw upon my previous work which looks at how emotional closeness and trust is formed between individuals interacting in online spaces.
I have been here for just six weeks now and am impressed by the dynamism of this research group. In addition to our weekly meetings where we discuss ongoing research within the department I have attended a brilliant workshop on Sustainable Air Travel, Behaviour Change and Social Media. This multidisciplinary workshop, held in Lincoln, highlighted the ways in which social media can be used to raise awareness of sustainability in travel, and begin to alter the behaviour of users and providers of air travel. It was a good opportunity to look at some of the research which didn’t necessarily fall into my “area of interest” but was very relevant to some of the work I will be doing with the ENACT Project team in terms of behaviour change.
So yes, a new team member – I hope to be making some somewhat more exciting blog posts over the weeks to come!
Journal Club 04.02.2011 – Facebook Usage, ENACT
Feb 7th
This week our discussion focused on social media regarding topics such as; motivation, structure and impacts of usage. The discussion of Facebook usage was in aid of the ENACT project which aims to study usage of social networking sites in order to improve the uptake of computerised cognitive behavioural therapy. The initial review paper (Students’ and teachers’ use of Facebook) gave a brief overview of current research into Facebook usage in an educational setting concerning topics such as student Facebook usage, profile information disclosure and students’ attitudes towards Facebook.
Interestingly Facebook usage was found to have a detrimental effect on users that were high consumers of information. One suggestion we had to combat this effect was to track the Facebook usage of users in order to determine those users who were consuming large amounts. Using this information it would then be possible to prompt the user into producing and incorporating themselves within their social network.
In the Older adults’ perceptions paper it was unsurprising to discover that this age group associated technology with distrust and therefore preferred to offer emotional support to other users with more established mediums such as face to face and telephones. Although the paper did highlight the fact that there are older users out there providing drawing from their own experiences in order to support to others.
Amazingly cakes were oversupplied this week, there may have to be a national cull in times to come.
Reviewed Papers
[pdf] Social Network Activity and Social Well-Being
[pdf] College students’ social networking experiences on Facebook
[pdf] Students’ and teachers’ use of Facebook
[pdf] Older adults’ perceptions and experiences of online social support
ENACT Project Blog #1
Jan 3rd
We have recently begun work on our work packages of the ENACT project. This project is investigating the use of modern Web 2.0 technology in the delivery of psychological therapy (Specifically; Cognitive Behaviour Therapy). As part of this project, there is a lot of basic background work to be done on understanding how people use these technologies in their day-today lives, and also on how people access computerised therapies. There is also a lot of work to be done on understanding how health research is conducted more generally.
Due to the vast array of stuff that is new to us that will undoubtedly come from our involvement in this project, I thought it would be a good idea to chronicle the process. So, this post will point to some papers we have read recently, some interesting starting points for thinking about how to go about this research. So, here’s a list of stuff we have recently found useful:
In doing and health-related research with humans it is of huge benefit to follow the guidelines laid out in this framework by Campbell, Fitzpatrick et al. (2000) Framework for design and evaluation of complex interventions to improve health
http://www.bmj.com/content/321/7262/694.extract
In attempting to get a new practice (such as a new form of computerised therapy) accepted into everyday usage within a health service, there are a lot of factors to think about – all of which should be driving research questions. These factors are laid out in fascinating detail by Carl May and Tracy Finch
http://soc.sagepub.com/content/43/3/535.abstract
There are certain variables, described by Asay and Lambert, that appear to heavily influence the success of psychological therapies. These factors are constant across all types of therapies and must certainly be considered when designing any new method for delivering therapy.
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/classes/31190/week%203/Asay-Common%20factors.pdf
Interestingly, the paper by Asay and Lambert should also be of interest to anyone interesting in developing any sort of technology with the intention of changing the behaviour of those who use it. The variables outlined by Asay and Lambert are the kinds of things that we are not good at identifying in HCI research. Another paper that is useful for all behaviour change purposes is this one by Percevic, Lambert and Kordy, which outlines the benefits of monitoring and presenting feedback as part of any intervention.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14981792
As I said – this really is a starting point – One that I’ve found to be quite useful in drawing up general ideas of how to go about this work. We’ll try to keep this blog updated as often as possible.
Conor