The intersection of psychology with computers is critical for innovation and user-centered technology design. However, it’s also the place where many harmful effects to people are unintentionally caused. 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.
In the past, data collection in psychological research was based on two main methods: laboratory experiments and surveys [1]. The former is a way to study a particular aspect in a controlled environment, while the latter evaluates general behavior by using self-reporting questionnaires or (potentially) structured interviews. Both suffer from inherent limitations.
Computers, however, can capture and analyze huge amounts of data at a rapid speed – and in ways which traditional methods aren’t able to. This makes them powerful new tools for psychologists and opens up a new area of research. For example, a new field called www.rebootdata.net/how-to-delete-apps-on-apple-watch Psycho(neuro)informatics is emerging that merges psychology and computer science to develop models of human brains and intelligence. This requires experts in the field: psychologists with domain knowledge and computer scientists who have the expertise to construct large-scale tracking systems and to manage and analyze the resulting data.
However, until recently, there was little collaboration between the fields. Google directors, for example, are more likely to have completed studies in computational and computer science (29%) than psychology (less than two percent). This has led to psychologists being under-represented in leadership in tech companies, resulting in that technology products are often unable to take psychological principles into consideration.