computer mediated and initiated intervention

8/2/2019 Computer Mediated and Initiated Intervention

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Identification and

Intervention in OnlineSocial Networking CrisesComputer Mediated and Initiated Interventions

Steven Entezari


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The overall goal of this research is to identify the opportunities and impacts of computer-

initiated and mediated Interventions for individuals who present signs of psychological crises on social

networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, and others. To achieve this we plan to utilize what we

know about data mining, establish a dependable intervention structure suitable for online social

communities, and measure the effects of computer or human-via-computer-initiated interventions to

contribute towards the cyber-therapy paradigm. This research hopes to enhance current crisis

intervention services by bringing awareness of available resources to the individual. As our social

support systems continue to include more and more of our online communities, we have more

opportunities to ask for help from others. However, due to the nature of online communities, and

psychological effects associated with them (bystander effect, deindividuation, disinhabition, etc),

many of these cries for help can go unanswered.

For everyday life, outside of the virtual world, if an individual finds the need to get help, they

have the opportunity to call one of many hotlines and speak to someone about their issues (such as

suicidal tendencies, depression, abuse, or others). To address the dire consequences of unanswered

cries for help now being discovered within online social support networks, a system could be put inplace to intervene with those who send these cries for help to their social-support system, but do not

receive adequate responses. A cry for help to an online community is usually a secondary attempt after

their traditional real-world social support system. If help is not found here, there is no other attempt. At

this point the individual has no other community to turn to.

The model of crisis interventions via telephone hotline has been utilized across the world for a

multitude of different crises. This type of crisis intervention is an attempt to offer the help necessary to

an individual before that individual has the chance to develop pathological behavior patterns due to the

crisis at-hand (Rosenbaum & Calhoun, 1977). In this model, the individual takes the initiative to contact

the members of the hotline. However, a number of reasons exist for individuals in need not making thatcontact with such services. Some individuals simply do not know the existence of such services or

resources to which they can refer to in their times of need. However, even if the individual is aware of

the resources, they may feel more comfortable in an asynchronous situation allowing them time to

compose their thoughts before responding (Salem, Bogat, & Reid, 1997). These individuals, in online

communities, exemplify those who initiate cries for help to their social support systems. When their

cries are answered, it is a great example of why social support systems are so beneficial to our

psychosocial development. This work, however, focuses on those occasions when these cries are not

answered and identifying opportunities to connect those individuals to the assistance they need.

The anonymity and comfort of the Internet often leads people to disclose more personal

information about themselves than they normally would in face-to-face communications (Joinson, 2001;

Rheingold, 1993; Wallace, 1999). SAHAR (a Hebrew acronym), is an online project designed to provide

individuals in crisis situations with a shoulder to lean on, a listening ear, and the warmth of an

anonymous and skilled helper, demonstrates the effectiveness and utilization of online-intervention

techniques (Barak, 2007). While SAHAR does address the importance and effectiveness of online

interventions, individuals must still know about this resource and access it themselves. SAHAR is not

automatically initiating the communication with the individual, as this research proposes to. The


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question then becomes whether a computer itself can accurately and reliably identify personal crisis

situations on social networking sites.

Existing research demonstrates that data mining and computer analyses are valuable tools for

crisis intervention. Tiong-Thye Goh and Yen-Pei Huang (2009) have found that it is possible to monitor

youth depression risks in blogs and social media posts by comparing them to a dictionary of keywordsand phrases from depressed persons. In addition, computer analyses of a suicidal persons self-reported

tendencies and demographics resulted in a more accurate prediction of a suicidal attempt within three

months of the analysis than compared to that of clinicians estimates (Gustafson, 1977; AEgisdottir,

2006).

During the identification of potential crisis-related messages, a critical factor will be to identify

those who have few social support interactions related to the crisis as well as those who have a history

of similar crises presented. While existing research suggests a presently unexplored opportunity to

initiate a fruitful intervention by a counselor assisted by an algorithm of a computer program, a major

focus area for this research is to also discover how individuals in need will react to these computer- or

human-via-computer-initiated interventions.

There are a slew of potential implications for the cyber-therapy paradigm. The arena of cyber-

therapy relies on individuals to know of the existence of cyber-therapy before getting any help. Sites like

Myspace and Google have began intelligently inserting psychological-help ads for messages that contain

signs of depression or suicide (Goh & Huang, 2009; Huang, Goh, & Liew, 2007). Identification of crisis-

messages can allow a volunteer, professional, or possibly an automated agent to provide resources, an

open ear, and even help to individuals that post pleas for help on communities like Facebook, Twitter,

MySpace, and others. This could result in the creation of an alternative paradigm for the initiation of

interventions, in which the computer algorithm helps to identify the individuals in need and make that

connection between them and the resources they need.

The idea here focuses around the fact that individuals are coming to their online social support

systems for help. Usually this is a secondary-attempt, behind asking their traditional, real-world support

system. If they dont get help here, there is no tertiary-attempt. The individual, at this point, has

exhausted all social-support resources. At some point in the development of the Internet as a social

utility, for the health and humanity of those who can not help themselves, there should be a way for

these individuals to get the psychological resources they need. The contribution of the proposed

research is to help address this very need.


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Works Cited

AEgisdottir, S. e. (2006). The meta-analysis of clinical judgment project: fifty-six years of accumulated

research on clinical versus statistical prediction. The Counseling Psychologist, 34 (3), 341-382.

Barak, A. (2007). Emotional support and suicide prevention through the Internet: A field project report.

Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 971-984.

Goh, T.-T., & Huang, Y.-P. (2009). Monitoring yout depression risk in Web 2.0. The Journal of Information

and Knowledge Management Systems, 39 (3), 192-202.

Gustafson, D. H. (1977). A Probabilistic System for Identifying Suicide Attemptors. Computers and

Biomedical Research , 83-89.

Huang, Y.-P., Goh, T., & Liew, C. L. (2007). Hunting Suicide Notes in Web 2.0 Preliminary Findings. Ninth

IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia 2007 - Workshops (pp. 517-521). Los Alamitos: IEEE.

Joinson, A. N. (2001). Self-disclosure in computer-mediated communication:The role of self-awarenessand visual anonymity. European Journal of Social Psychology, 31, 177-192.

Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community. New York: Addison-Wesley.

Rosenbaum, A., & Calhoun, J. F. (1977). The Use of the Telephone Hotline in Crisis Intervention: A

Review.Journal of Community Psychology, 5, 325-339.

Salem, D. A., Bogat, G. A., & Reid, C. (1997). Mutual Help Goes Online.Journal of Community Psychology

, 25 (2), 189-207.

Wallace, P. (1999). The Psychology of the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

computer mediated and initiated intervention

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