Our human touch approach: high tech
As a psychology section within a technological oriented university we also are increasingly enthusiastic about the possibilities of including new technology in our research projects, and many of our researchers already do so. You may want to consider including technology in your individual research project in three different ways:
- Because new technologies are usually accompanied by risk perceptions and aversion, it is important to understand how people react to and make sense of new technology-related risks. One of our PhD projects, for example, focuses on risk perceptions and behavior in relation to Nano modification of food.
- Technology also shapes the way people interact, referring to e.g. online behaviour (cybercrime) and offering possibilities for technology-aided intervention (e.g. online victim-offender mediation). One of our PhD projects, for example, evaluates a new online legal aid tool, which is administered and developed further by the Legal Aid Board in the Netherlands.
- New technology allows for the monitoring and analyses of large groups and datasets (e.g. capturing movement, (non)verbal behaviour, physiology) in actual high- stakes situations; we use sociometric badges to measure group interaction, GPS sensors to examine movement patterns, and LIWC software to do text analyses. As an example, one of our PhD projects uses Thought Technology skin conductance sensors to examine cognitive and affective load during deception processes.
Of course, your own ideas about how you might use new technology are very welcome.