scholarly journals Feasibility of gathering momentary and daily assessments of fear of crime using a smartphone application (STUNDA): Methodological considerations and findings from a study among Swedish university students

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 205979912098030
Author(s):  
Karl Kronkvist ◽  
Alexander Engström
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Fear Of Crime ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Baseline Survey ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
The Social ◽  
Methodological Considerations

The introduction of experience research using smartphone applications has enabled researchers to explore previously uncharted territories within the social science landscape. The use of experience research methodologies may both avoid some of the biases associated with conventional survey methods and enable researchers to gather information on situational dimensions of different outcomes. While existing smartphone-based experience research is found in several scientific disciplines, one outcome that has rarely been studied using this approach is fear of crime. Although fear of crime here only serves as an example of an outcome that may benefit from being examined in situ, the main focus of this article is directed at assessing the feasibility of gathering momentary and daily assessments on fear of crime using an experience sampling research design. A sample of 191 university students participated in a non-incentivized research study by downloading the smartphone application STUNDA, completing a baseline survey and repeatedly answering signal-contingent surveys, event-contingent surveys, and daily assessments across a self-defined study period. The results indicate that it is feasible to conduct research on fear of crime using a smartphone application. However, variations in participation across groups indicate that the methodology is perhaps best suited to dedicated groups of participants with a special interest in the studied outcome. Methodological considerations and implications for future research are discussed.

scholarly journals Functional and Dysfunctional Fear of COVID-19: A Classification Scheme

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reka Solymosi ◽  
Jonathan Jackson ◽  
Krisztián Pósch ◽  
Julia Yesberg ◽  
Ben Bradford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Fear Of Crime ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Perceptions Of Risk ◽  
The Social

Worry about COVID-19 is a central topic of research into the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Worry can be a negative and debilitating experience that damages mental health and discourages healthy re-engagement with the world, but it can also be a problem-solving activity, directing people’s attention to problems, and encouraging them to act accordingly. We present in this paper a way of measuring worry about catching COVID-19 that distinguishes between “functional fear” and “dysfunctional fear.” Drawing on work into fear of crime, our classification divides people into three groups: (1) the unworried, (2) the functionally worried (adaptive emotions encourage proactive behaviours to reduce the chance of infection) and (3) the dysfunctionally worried (quality of life is damaged by the emotional experience or taking ineffective or damaging precautions). Analysing data from two waves of a longitudinal panel study of over 1,000 individuals living in ten cities in England, Scotland and Wales, we find differing levels of negative anxiety, anger, loneliness, unhappiness and life satisfaction for each of the three groups, with dysfunctionally worried experiencing the most negative outcomes and functionally worried experiencing less negative outcomes than unworried. We find no difference between groups in compliance and willingness to re-engage in social life. Finally, we compare perceptions of risk (differentiating between likelihood, control and consequence) for each group, and find a difference between the dysfunctionally worried compared with functional and unworried groups. Our findings inform what sort of content-targeted messaging aimed at reducing dysfunctional worry might wish to promote. We conclude with some thoughts on the applicability of our measurement scheme for future research.

scholarly journals Bullying at University: The Social and Legal Contexts of Cyberbullying Among University Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 1172-1182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie-Anne Myers ◽  
Helen Cowie
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Parental Support ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dangerous Place ◽  
Awareness Raising ◽  
Legal Contexts ◽  
The University

Students within the university sector are “digital natives.” Technology is not “new” or “alien” to them, but rather it is an accepted and normalized part of everyday life. With this level of expertise and competence, we could assume that university students are relatively happy with their online relationships. However, in recent years, there has been a growing realization that, for some students at least, the online world is a very dangerous place. The age of the students is of key importance here too, as those in higher and further education are young adults, rather than children in need of parental support. From this perspective, the university as an institution has a duty of care to its students in their learning environment regardless of their age. In this article, we consider the social and cultural contexts that either promote or discourage cyberbullying among university students. Finally, the implications for policies, training, and awareness raising are discussed along with ideas for possible future research in this under researched area.

Examining experiential fear of crime using STUNDA: Findings from a smartphone-based experience methods study

2021 ◽  
pp. 147737082110353
Author(s):  
Alexander Engström ◽  
Karl Kronkvist
Keyword(s):  
Odds Ratio ◽  
Generalized Estimating Equations ◽  
Fear Of Crime ◽  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Theoretical Conclusion ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Lower Odds Ratio

Situational data have become more frequently used in research on offending and victimization. However, one outcome that has received less attention is fear of crime. The current study uses situational data collected through a smartphone application (STUNDA) to examine fear of crime as it is experienced in daily life among a sample of university students. Roughly 1200 situations reported by 129 students were analysed using generalized estimating equations. The results indicate that experiential fear of crime, in the form of worrying about victimization, is related to features of the immediate settings. More specifically, the odds ratio for experiencing fear of crime is significantly higher in places away from home and after dark, whereas social activities are associated with a significantly lower odds ratio, net of individual-level controls (gender, age, previous victimization and fear propensity). Yet, fear propensity, measured here using items that refer to an individual’s general worry about victimization, has an independent significant effect on fear of crime. As a result of the study’s convenience sample, the generalizability of the findings is limited, but a more general theoretical conclusion can nonetheless be drawn; features of settings and individual characteristics are both of importance. Further, the use of experience methods via a smartphone application provided detailed and unique situational data, which suggests that future research should further employ these methods to study situational phenomena such as fear of crime.

scholarly journals A Survey on Energy Harvesting and Integrated Data Sharing in Wireless Body Area Networks

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoling Xu ◽  
Lei Shu ◽  
Mohsen Guizani ◽  
Mei Liu ◽  
Junye Lu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Data Sharing ◽  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Body Area Networks ◽  
Wireless Body Area Networks ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Body Area ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Future Research Directions

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) are important branches of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). They promise unobtrusive ambulatory health monitoring for real-time updates of patients’ medical records that have aroused extensive attention in various fields. In recent years, one can find a lot of researches related to WBANs that have appeared in these literatures. But there are still many key issues that need to be further investigated. This paper briefly introduces the architecture and features of WBANs. In this attempt, we focus mostly on energy acquisition, data integration and data sharing, and collaboration of WBANs, from the viewpoint of energy harvesting development, the social network and smartphone application in WBANs, and the integration of WBANs and cloud system networks computing to analyze related issues of WBANs. Finally, we put forward concluding remarks with several future research directions.

International University Students in Thailand: Shifting from Universalistic Models to an Ethnicity Matters Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Rhein
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
University Students ◽  
International Student ◽  
First Century ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Student Adjustment ◽  
Mobile Students ◽  
The Social ◽  
International University ◽  
Constructivist Position

Historically, much of the research on acculturation and adjustment was conducted on migrant and refugee populations. The start of the twenty first century has seen a surprising surge in a new immigrant class, mobile students, their characteristics differing from the social, political and economic refugees of the twentieth century. This article provides an overview of the literature related to the salient features of acculturation, adaptation and adjustment models as applied to international university students and the stressors they most frequently encounter. It recommends that future research transitions from universalistic mode-based inquiry to more nuanced approaches which emphasize an individual’s characteristics from country of origin or perceived ethnic identity. A social constructivist position which emphasizes the historical and ethnic relationships among the visiting students and the host nationals is most beneficial to understanding the contemporary international student adjustment paradigm.

scholarly journals Ten seconds of my nights: Exploring methods to measure brightness, loudness and attendance and their associations with alcohol use from video clips

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0250443
Author(s):  
Florian Labhart ◽  
Skanda Muralidhar ◽  
Benoit Massé ◽  
Lakmal Meegahapola ◽  
Emmanuel Kuntsche ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Computer Algorithms ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Contextual Characteristics ◽  
Logistic Regressions

Introduction Most evidence on associations between alcohol use behaviors and the characteristics of its social and physical context is based on self-reports from study participants and, thus, only account for their subjective impressions of the situation. This study explores the feasibility of obtaining alternative measures of loudness, brightness, and attendance (number of people) using 10-second video clips of real-life drinking occasions rated by human annotators and computer algorithms, and explores the associations of these measures with participants’ choice to drink alcohol or not. Methods Using a custom-built smartphone application, 215 16-25-year-olds documented characteristics of 2,380 weekend night drinking events using questionnaires and videos. Ratings of loudness, brightness, and attendance were obtained from three sources, namely in-situ participants’ ratings, video-based annotator ratings, and video-based computer algorithm ratings. Bivariate statistics explored differences in ratings across sources. Multilevel logistic regressions assessed the associations of contextual characteristics with alcohol use. Finally, model fit indices and cross-validation were used to assess the ability of each set of contextual measures to predict participants’ alcohol use. Results Raw ratings of brightness, loudness and attendance differed slightly across sources, but were all correlated (r = .21 to .82, all p < .001). Participants rated bars/pubs as being louder (Cohen’s d = 0.50 [95%-CI: 0.07–0.92]), and annotators rated private places as darker (d = 1.21 [95%-CI: 0.99–1.43]) when alcohol was consumed than when alcohol was not consumed. Multilevel logistic regressions showed that drinking in private places was more likely in louder (ORparticipants = 1.74 [CI: 1.31–2.32]; ORannotators = 3.22 [CI: 2.06–5.03]; ORalgorithm = 2.62 [CI: 1.83–3.76]), more attended (ORparticipants = 1.10 [CI: 1.03–1.18]; ORalgorithm = 1.19 [CI: 1.07–1.32]) and darker (OR = 0.64 [CI: 0.44–0.94]) situations. In commercial venues, drinking was more likely in darker (ORparticipants = 0.67 [CI: 0.47–0.94]; ORannotators = 0.53 [CI: 0.33–0.85]; ORalgorithm = 0.58 [CI: 0.37–0.88]) and louder (ORparticipants = 1.40 [CI: 1.02–1.92]; ORalgorithm = 2.45 [CI: 1.25–4.80]) places. Higher inference accuracies were found for the models based on the annotators’ ratings (80% to 84%) and the algorithms’ ratings (76% to 86%) than on the participants’ ratings (69% to 71%). Conclusions Several contextual characteristics are associated with increased odds of drinking in private and commercial settings, and might serve as a basis for the development of prevention measures. Regarding assessment of contextual characteristics, annotators and algorithms might serve as appropriate substitutes of participants’ in-situ impressions for correlational and regression analyses despite differences in raw ratings. Collecting contextual data by means of sensors or media files is recommended for future research.

An Empirical Investigation on University Students' Smartphone Dependency

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Sabakun Naher Shetu
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Social Influences ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
Sampling Procedure ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
Data Set

The purpose of this research is to explore how the social needs, social values, and social influences affect the university students' smartphone dependency in Bangladesh perspectives. The researcher used structured survey methods and a non-probability convenience sampling procedure to collect the primary data. For data analysis purposes, the SmartPLS software was used. The data was collected from both undergraduate and master's students, and 532 respondents' data set was considered to analyze the proposed hypotheses. The analysis results indicated that social needs, social values, and social influences have a positive relationship and significantly influence university students' smartphone dependency. The study focused on smartphone dependency of university students, which has become one of the crucial gadgets to carry among the youth. The demand for smartphone usage is significantly increasing in Bangladesh, and previous studies have not been focused on this area. The research limitations of this study are also presented, and the authors suggested directions of future research as well.

Current Postvention Research and Priorities for the Future

Crisis ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Andriessen ◽  
Dolores Angela Castelli Dransart ◽  
Julie Cerel ◽  
Myfanwy Maple
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Intercultural Collaboration ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Suicide Bereavement ◽  
Ethical Approval

Abstract. Background: Suicide can have a lasting impact on the social life as well as the physical and mental health of the bereaved. Targeted research is needed to better understand the nature of suicide bereavement and the effectiveness of support. Aims: To take stock of ongoing studies, and to inquire about future research priorities regarding suicide bereavement and postvention. Method: In March 2015, an online survey was widely disseminated in the suicidology community. Results: The questionnaire was accessed 77 times, and 22 records were included in the analysis. The respondents provided valuable information regarding current research projects and recommendations for the future. Limitations: Bearing in mind the modest number of replies, all from respondents in Westernized countries, it is not known how representative the findings are. Conclusion: The survey generated three strategies for future postvention research: increase intercultural collaboration, increase theory-driven research, and build bonds between research and practice. Future surveys should include experiences with obtaining research grants and ethical approval for postvention studies.

The Social Neuroscience of Cooperation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Review Literature ◽  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Future Research ◽  
A Value ◽  
Group Cooperation ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cooperative Decision Making

We review literature from several fields to describe common experimental tasks used to measure human cooperation as well as the theoretical models that have been used to characterize cooperative decision-making, as well as brain regions implicated in cooperation. Building on work in neuroeconomics, we suggest a value-based account may provide the most powerful understanding the psychology and neuroscience of group cooperation. We also review the role of individual differences and social context in shaping the mental processes that underlie cooperation and consider gaps in the literature and potential directions for future research on the social neuroscience of cooperation. We suggest that this multi-level approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of the mental and neural processes that underlie the decision to cooperate with others.

Political psychology in the digital (mis)information age: A model of news belief and sharing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel ◽  
Elizabeth Ann Harris ◽  
Philip Pärnamets ◽  
Steve Rathje ◽  
Kimberly Doell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Social

The spread of misinformation, including “fake news,” propaganda, and conspiracy theories, represents a serious threat to society, as it has the potential to alter beliefs, behavior, and policy. Research is beginning to disentangle how and why misinformation is spread and identify processes that contribute to this social problem. We propose an integrative model to understand the social, political, and cognitive psychology risk factors that underlie the spread of misinformation and highlight strategies that might be effective in mitigating this problem. However, the spread of misinformation is a rapidly growing and evolving problem; thus scholars need to identify and test novel solutions, and work with policy makers to evaluate and deploy these solutions. Hence, we provide a roadmap for future research to identify where scholars should invest their energy in order to have the greatest overall impact.

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