The Intersection of Psychology and Computers

The connection between psychology and computers is crucial to innovation and design of technology with a focus on the user. However, it’s also where a lot of unintended harms to people occur. That’s why we need psychologists to play a bigger role in tech development–particularly given that many technology companies change human behavior at scale and profit from behavioral changes, and generally embrace scientific innovation.

Traditionally, psychological research rely on two basic methods of data collection that are lab experiments and surveys, or interviews [1]. The former focuses on a specific aspect in a small controlled setting, while the latter assesses broader behavior using self-reporting questionnaires or (potentially) structured interviews. Both have their own limitations.

Computers, however, are able to process and analyze large amounts of data at a high speed–and in ways that traditional methods are unable to. This is why they are powerful tools for psychologists, opening up an entirely new field of investigation. For example, a new field called Psycho(neuro)informatics is emerging that merges psychology and computer science to develop models of www.rebootdata.net/destructive-online-activity-and-computer-games human brains and intelligence. This requires an expert team: psychologists who have domain expertise, and computer scientists with the ability to create large-scale tracking systems and to manage and model the resulting data.

But until recently, there was not much collaboration between the different fields. Google directors, for example are more likely have a degree in computational and computer science (29 percent) than psychology (less that two percent). This has led to a lack of psychology in the top management of tech companies, with the result that many technology products fail to consider psychological aspects.