What do you do in the analysis phase?
Moving from problem to analysis.
Finding explanations for the problem as a basis for the solution.
What are the parts of the analysis phase?
- Defining the outcome variable
- Divergent phase
- You bridge out and you look for all kinds of possible explanations for your problem.
- Convergent phase
- Try to end up with a list of feasible potential explanations for the problem.
The outcome variable
I.e., the variable that we want to change with the intervention, as a desired end-state.
In what way does the outcome variable need to be phrased?
As a psychological variable
- Behaviour and intentions
- Attitudes and cognitions
- Emotions or affect
What are the requirements of the outcome variable?
- Relevance
- Specificity
- Continuity
What do you need to look at when deciding on an outcome variable?
- What is the variable?
- What is the direction of the variable?
- How do you measure the variable?
The outcome variables of the TikTok problem:
Many teenagers tend to wake up during the night to check their social media, disrupting their sleep (what?).
This can pose a problem to these young people and the people around them, like school teachers (who?).
Because it can result in feeling tired at school, resulting in decreased academic performance, and decreased health and well-being (why?).
Potential causes are FOMO and peer pressure (causes?).
An intervention could potentially target teenagers on social media (target group?).
Variables:
- Attitudes towards social media use at night
- Social media postings at night
Direction:
- Less positive attitudes towards social media use at night
- Fewer social media posts at night
Measurement:
- Surveys/self-reports
- Number of posts per week
What are the outcome variables of the following example about overweight adults that work shifts:
Overweight is an increasing problem in society, and prevalent in workforce that needs to work irregular hours (e.g., night shifts) (what?)
This can pose a problem to these people and the people around them, as well as employers and society as a whole (who?)
Because overweight is a predictor of different health problems (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer) resulting in decreased health and well-being (why?).
Potential (psychological) causes are attitudes towards diet and exercise and social norms (causes?).
An intervention could target adults that work irregular hours (target group?).
Variables:
- Attitudes towards exercising and healthy eating
- Eating and exercise intention or behaviour
- Weight
- (Self-efficacy?)
Direction:
- More positive attitudes about exercising and healthy eating
- Increased exercise behaviour (intention), healthier eating patterns
- Steady or decreasing weight
- (Increased self-efficacy about diet and exercise)
Measurement:
- Surveys/self-reports
- Gym visits
- Eating diaries
- Scale
What is the aim of the divergent phase?
Being as complete as possible:
- Generate as many explanations as possible and identify the relevant causes of the problem.
- Focus on explaining differences in the outcome variable.
o What kind of factors play a role?
How do you generate the explanations in the divergent phase?
With free association
What are the different kinds of free association
- Problem association
- Concept association
- Perspective taking
Interviews and observations in the divergent phase
- Interviews
- ‘why’ interviews (real imaginary).
- Qualitative
- Reactive
o The outcome depends on what the interviewees are giving you.
- Observational data
- Behaviour observation/ introspection
- Quantitative
- Structured
- Surveys.
- Quantitative
- Efficient
What are the strategies for searching for social psychological literature in the divergent phase
- Topical strategy
- Literature that directly relates to your problem
- Conceptual strategy
- If you can’t find anything using the topical strategy you can start to search more general
- General theory strategy
- Always dive into the general theory of behaviour and behaviour change
Needs assessment in the divergent phase
How does the target group perceive the problem themselves?
- Often, the person or the client that comes to you with the problem is not the target group.
What is the level of knowledge, skills, and resources in the target group?
- If your target group doesn’t have the resources to work with your intervention, you can think of all kinds of interventions but they won’t be effective.
Which needs and capacities does the target group express?
What environmental factors play a role?
What circles of influence is a person a part of?
- Individual
- Interpersonal
- Organization
- Community
- Systemic
The interpersonal circle of a person
- Family
- Peers
Environment factors:
- Social support
The organization circle of a person
- Work
- School
- Hospital
Environment factors:
- Norms
- Policy
The community circle of a person
- Neighborhoods
- Towns
Environment factors:
- Facilities
- Social capital
The systemic circle of a person
- Local government
- National government
- International government
Environment factors:
- Legislation
When is it important to do a needs assessment?
When you are generating solutions for your problem.
What are the limitations of scientific literature in the divergent phase?
Oversimplification
- Clean and simple designs
- Reality is messy
o Reality is quite messy and scientific literature tries to simplify it to make it understandable and predictable.
o This means that you cannot always directly translate it back to reality.
External validity
- W.E.I.R.D participants
o Western, Educated, Industrialized country, Rich, Democrats
o They are not representative to all people in the world - Lab vs. field
o Studies are often done in the lab, which can be different than in the field
Contrasting findings
- Sometimes it’s up to you how to weigh these different findings in your conclusion
What is the aim of the convergent phase?
Being selective:
- End up with a set of explanations that describe social psychological processes that change the outcome variable.
- These explanations serve as input for the process model in the next phase.
What do you do in the convergent phase?
Getting rid of redundant and irrelevant explanations
- Look for overlap and combine redundant explanations.
- Some previously generated ideas may turn out to be irrelevant upon further inspection.
Getting rid of invalid explanations
- Exclude theoretical explanations when the theory is no longer applicable under the conditions of the problem.
o The theory itself might be valid but it’s an invalid explanation for your problem. - Note parameters for certain theories and effects and check whether these are met in the problem at hand.
Getting rid of implausible explanations
- Exclude the least plausible explanations as determined by (thought) experiments and logical thinking (if X then Y, but if not X, not Y?).
- You can do this in a real experiment or a thought experiment.
What do you do in the analysis phase?
- An outcome variable is specified.
- Many explanations are collected (divergent phase)
- The number of explanations is reduced (convergent phase)
