PSY3032 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Social Desirability Bias, Disease Surveillance, Online Dating Service
24 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Week 11 Online behaviour
Online social behaviour
Has online communication changed how we interact with other people?
Early research on how “social connectedness” and well-being are affected
by the Internet use shows:
- Kraut et al. (1998), Internet use was negatively related to “social
connectedness” and well-being
- Nie (2001), people who spend more time on the internet spent less
time with friends
More recently, changes in technology lead to different outcome:
- Kraut et al. (2002) a 2 years longitudinal study found that internet use improved social
connectedness and well-being in adolescents
• Other studies supported these findings (Bessiere et al., 2008; Valkenburg & Peter,
2007)
• However, this only applied to adolescents that use the internet mostly for existing
friendships (Bessiere et al, 2008)
Why online communication affects us?
Online communication stimulates online self-disclosure
-Less inhibition to disclose intimate information due to the reduced visual
auditory and contextual cues.
Online self-disclosure enhances relationship quality
-Both face-to-face and online disclosure are related to closeness and
friendship formation
High quality relationships promote well-being
-Online communication improved the quality of adolescent friendship and life
satisfaction
Mental health: Social anxiety and the Internet
2 key hypotheses:
-Social compensation hypothesis: mainly socially anxious people that use
online communication (due to reduced cues)
-The “rich-get-richer’ hypothesis: it is mostly the socially competent people
that use online communication
Most studies support the “rich-get-richer” hypothesis, but more anxious
people prefer online to offline self-disclosure.
Mental health: Benefits for people suffering from mental health disorders
Online support groups and forums- reading about social anxiety disorder
(‘bibliotherapy’) and participating in online support groups were found to be
effective in the treatment of social anxiety disorder.
Therapy delivered online- ‘Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy’
(ICBT) was found to be as effective as group CBT delivered in psychiatric
settings: help increase availability to CBT (Headman et al., 2011, PlosOne)
Online social support in physical health
McKay et al. (2002): joining online diabetes management and peer support
and groups led to as much improvement in physiologic, behavioural, and
mental health as did conventional diabetes management.
Social media and medical research
It can help identify potential participants in clinical trials
Sites designed to support collection, aggregation and analysis of data from
patients to inform both treatment decisions and research
Also, Facebook and Twitter are used to ‘crowdsource’ patient level data- for
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Early research on how social connectedness and well-being are affected by the internet use shows: Kraut et al. (1998), internet use was negatively related to social connectedness and well-being. Nie (2001), people who spend more time on the internet spent less time with friends. More recently, changes in technology lead to different outcome: Kraut et al. (2002) a 2 years longitudinal study found that internet use improved social connectedness and well-being in adolescents: other studies supported these findings (bessiere et al. , 2008; valkenburg & peter, 2007: however, this only applied to adolescents that use the internet mostly for existing friendships (bessiere et al, 2008) Less inhibition to disclose intimate information due to the reduced visual auditory and contextual cues. Both face-to-face and online disclosure are related to closeness and friendship formation. Online communication improved the quality of adolescent friendship and life satisfaction. Social compensation hypothesis: mainly socially anxious people that use online communication (due to reduced cues)
