How should psychologists leverage advances in modern technology in their research and or practice?

I'm delighted to offer my warmest congratulations to Bella Prestney, from Royal Hospital School Suffolk, on being awarded the prize for the best pre-university essay in the Association for the Teaching of Psychology/PsychStix competition 2023.

Her contribution, 'How should psychologists leverage advances in modern technology in their research and or practice?' is topical and of critical importance to psychology both now and in the future. She describes and illustrates the key areas of growth and improved validity in our psychological understanding, theory and research alongside the benefits for practice. Her work reminds us, as we hear much anxiety about the potential downsides, particularly of AI, that the benefits of a skilled and professional application of technology can help us to improve and refine our practice, reaching more and more people who need us. (The competition was judged by cyber-psychologist Dr Linda Kaye from Edge Hill University.)

I commend this essay to you all and hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

Congratulations also to second place Freya Lawson-Jackson, from Great Beddow High School, Essex. Her entry, and Bella's, will be published in ATP Today magazine.

Professor Patricia Hind

Chair, Education and Training Board, BPS

Psychology is an ever-evolving field which has required the fusion of modern technology and human understanding to sculpt our current perception of human behaviour. This essay explores four of the main ways that psychologists can leverage advances in modern technology in their research and practice. In the wake of the pandemic, the development of modern technology has accelerated, providing a wide breadth of new opportunities. These hold the possibility of revolutionising our understanding of the human mind and consequently, the quality of mental health care that can be provided by psychologists. 

The symbiotic relationship between cognitive psychology and AI is one of the key factors that may help contribute to the exponential growth of both psychologist's understanding of behaviour and that of AI development. Defined by the Oxford Learner's Dictionary as 'the study and development of computer systems that can copy intelligent human behaviour,' AI is a broad spectrum of technology that provides psychologists and researchers with a wide breadth of possibilities to enhance understanding and practice that only expand looking forward into the future. By using machine learning models alongside scientific regret minimisation psychologists can begin filling the gaps in many of the current theories regarding the causation of human behaviour (Griffiths, 2023) in this way, AI can be used as a tool to continue expanding and developing the understanding psychologists have. Therefore, developments in AI not only have the potential to lead to reciprocal growth in psychological understanding and research but they can also provide resources for psychologists to use in practice such as therapy. 

Currently one of the critical problems worsening the mental health crisis is the access to therapy. Worldwide, the demand for therapy far outweighs the number of therapists able to provide such a service, one study revealed that 6 out of 10 practitioners could not provide any appointments for new patients and 46% were unable to keep up with the growing demand for therapy. (Bethune, 2022) Although much of this demand has been exacerbated by the pandemic, it did not erect it and the issue still remains prevalent years later. To combat this, AI can be harnessed to produce conversational agents feasible of delivering a web-based form of CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and studies have proven that users exposed to the programme reported significantly reduced symptoms of depression. (Fitzpatrick et al., 2017) The importance of human connections is something that must not be overlooked, as humans from birth to death we are continually building connections and relationships with one another which has become one of the key influences over our wellbeing. Furthermore, empathy is a fundamental principle that has guided therapy to the success it now has, crucially such an intrinsically human trait is something that can never be entirely replicated by AI. Although AI can therefore be programmed to provide some forms of therapy, it would for this reason be most effectively used in conjunction with a human therapist to augment psychotherapeutic provisions and the overall experience of a patient without sacrificing the key connections made between a therapist and patient. Additionally, it must be ensured that this development does not lead to an overreliance on AI. 

One of the most commonly utilised technological advancements in the 21st century is that of smartphones; a product in which consumption has grown exponentially since its release. As of 2021 88% of people over 16 owned a smartphone, a rapid growth compared to 2008 when the figures stood at 17% owning a smartphone (Hiley, 2023) and with these numbers only predicted to grow it is something firmly rested in the future of psychological knowledge. Despite the seemingly useful appeal of these devices, there are numerous studies connecting smartphone usage to addictive behaviour alongside decreased mental and physical well-being. A study by King's College London revealed that 1 in 4 children and young people use their smartphone in a way that is consistent with a behavioural addiction (Sohn & Carter, 2019) However, psychologists can leverage these devices and their information to augment the insight that psychologists have into human behaviour. Predictive algorithms using smartphone data can be used to detect behaviours such as those linked to suicide risk in order to provide early intervention. (María Luisa Barrigón et al., 2023) By utilising and developing upon programmes such as these, psychologists can attempt to reduce the risk of suicide, something which is the fourth leading cause of death in children and adults between 15-29 (WHO, 2023). Furthermore, researchers can begin developing apps that promote improved physical and mental well-being to pivot the utilisation of devices in an increasingly more positive direction. Researchers in Sweden constructed an app designed to help users overcome social anxiety disorder (Miloff et al., 2015) something which demonstrates one of the many possibilities that these devices provide for the future of psychological practice and understanding. In this way, advancements in mobile devices are facilitating a new method of analysis into the causation of human behaviour that psychologists must utilise to enhance their research and practice. 

Research in Psychology has always faced barriers, whether it be from ethical guidelines and boundaries or the influence of bias, which restrict the reliability and validity or even simply the capability of the researcher to proceed with the research. Despite this, there is one prominent example of barriers to research that has not been addressed, and that is the researcher's ability to increase the external validity of a study within a lab setting. However, one of the new areas of modern technology seeks to address this issue, VR (virtual reality), which is defined by the Oxford Learner's Dictionary as 'images created by a computer that appear to surround the person looking at them and seem almost real.' Virtual reality provides the freedom for psychologists to generalise the setting of their research to the specifics that they desire therefore being able to increase the external validity of a study whilst still controlling the setting and variables within it. Previously one of the roadblocks to allowing such advancements was the cost of research-grade consumer systems, however, due to cost reductions and increased availability there are predicted to be 34 million of these systems installed in 2024. (Draschkow, 2022) By utilising such a resource psychologists can improve the (external) validity of their research thereby producing a more credible scientific basis for many psychological theories. 

Whilst virtual reality can be used to improve the validity of psychologists' research it can also help leverage psychological practice, particularly within the specific practice of exposure-based therapies for phobias. VR can be tailored specifically to match aspects of a patient's fear structures to allow these to be modified more effectively meaning that patients can overall be treated more successfully. Furthermore, VR appears to provide a safer environment for patients with a study showing that patient refusal rate was lowered from 27% to 3% when VR exposure was used (Maples-Keller et al., 2017). This suggests that the use of VR as one area of modern technology can help psychologists gain more precision in both their practice and research but importantly it can also be used in a way that improves patient satisfaction and willingness to engage in treatments. Despite the references to exposure-based therapy, with the extensive possibilities of technology, particularly regarding that of VR capabilities, psychologists should also explore the use of technology such as VR in the treatment of a variety of mental disorders. 

Technology is not only a sector of major growth currently but also an area that is predicted to continue expanding for many years, continually providing new pathways for the field of psychology to progress and evolve. However, as this new growth explores more of the previously unknown, we must heed with caution to prevent an overreliance on AI in the future at the expense of the efficacy and reliability of psychological research and practice. Fundamentally there is a distinction between the programming of AI and human behaviour, AI behaviour is programmed to be entirely predictable whereas human behaviour by nature is unpredictable and this difference is one of the foundations for the reasons why AI cannot be solely used in the practise but also research of psychology. For this reason, we must recognise the significance of human connections and the deeply rooted role of empathy that human psychologists can provide. Despite this, modern technology is undoubtedly a resource that psychologists and researchers must use alike as within this new wave of advancements comes the potential to more easily and effectively analyse behaviour. Alongside this deepened understanding comes new development for psychological theories and therefore the ability to better treat mental disorders and finally tackle the growing mental health crisis. To conclude, it would be remiss of psychologists not to enhance their research and practice when modern technology provides such rich opportunities to do so in ways that include but are not limited to those explored within this essay. 

References 

Bethune, S. (2022, November 15). Increased need for mental health care strains capacity. Apa.org; American Psychological Association. 

Draschkow, D. (2022). Remote virtual reality as a tool for increasing external validity. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1(8), 433–434. 

Fitzpatrick, K. K., Darcy, A., & Vierhile, M. (2017). Delivering Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Young Adults With Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Using a Fully Automated Conversational Agent (Woebot): A Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Mental Health, 4(2), e19. 

Griffiths, T. (2023). How studying human cognition can help us make better AI systems. Apa.org. 

Hiley, C. (2023, February 1). UK Mobile Phone Statistics 2023 - Mobiles Facts and Stats Report. Uswitch. 

Maples-Keller, J. L., Bunnell, B. E., Kim, S.-J., & Rothbaum, B. O. (2017). The Use of Virtual Reality Technology in the Treatment of Anxiety and Other Psychiatric Disorders. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 25(3), 103–113. 

María Luisa Barrigón, Romero-Medrano, L., Moreno-Muñoz, P., Porras-Segovia, A., López-Castromán, J., Philippe Courtet, Artés-Rodríguez, A., & Baca-García, E. (2023). One-Week Suicide Risk Prediction Using Real-Time Smartphone Monitoring: Prospective Cohort Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25(PMC10504627), e43719–e43719. 

Miloff, A., Marklund, A., & Carlbring, P. (2015). The challenger app for social anxiety disorder: New advances in mobile psychological treatment. Internet Interventions, 2(4), 382–391. 

Sohn, S., & Carter, B. (2019, November 29). An estimated 1 in 4 children and young people have problematic smartphone usage. Www.kcl.ac.uk. 

Stringer, H. (2022, April 1). Tapping into a new tool for research researchers are exploring whether digital footprints from smartphones can be used to assess personality and mental health status. Apa.org. 

WHO. (2023, August 28). Suicide. World Health Organization; World Health Organization: WHO.