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"Friends - psychology"
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Best friend trouble
\"A funny and relatable story about best friends, competition and learning to see things from another's point of view.\"--Amazon.com.
Book
Social Influence Bias: A Randomized Experiment
Our society is increasingly relying on the digitized, aggregated opinions of others to make decisions. We therefore designed and analyzed a large-scale randomized experiment on a social news aggregation Web site to investigate whether knowledge of such aggregates distorts decision-making. Prior ratings created significant bias in individual rating behavior, and positive and negative social influences created asymmetric herding effects. Whereas negative social influence inspired users to correct manipulated ratings, positive social influence increased the likelihood of positive ratings by 32% and created accumulating positive herding that increased final ratings by 25% on average. This positive herding was topic-dependent and affected by whether individuals were viewing the opinions of friends or enemies. A mixture of changing opinion and greater turnout under both manipulations together with a natural tendency to up-vote on the site combined to create the herding effects. Such findings will help interpret collective judgment accurately and avoid social influence bias in collective intelligence in the future.
Journal Article
Friendaholic : confessions of a friendship addict
As a society, there is a tendency to elevate romantic love. But what about friendships? Aren't they just as - if not more - important? So why is it hard to find the right words to express what these uniquely complex bonds mean to us? In 'Friendaholic', Elizabeth Day embarks on a journey to answer these questions.
Book
Pilot implementation of an online program for family and friends supporting the mental health of paramedics in Australia: Lessons learned
Paramedics experience disproportionately high rates of mental health concerns, often relying on informal support from family and friends. While this support is vital, it can impose significant strain on family and friends, who frequently lack the necessary resources and skills for their role. To address this, a novel online program, Minds Together, was developed specifically for family and friends to enhance their ability to support the mental health of paramedics while prioritizing their own mental health and wellbeing.
The feasibility and acceptability of the program was evaluated through a pilot study involving 53 participants randomized to either program or waitlist groups. Data collection included pre- and post-intervention surveys, program usage metrics, post-project surveys, and feedback from user testing. The Global Impact Analytics Framework (GIAF) guided analysis of planning, pre-engagement, pre-readiness, usability, dissemination, adoption, and contextual factors.
Participants valued the program for its lived-experience content and self-paced format. Broad dissemination reached over one million individuals, and usability and relevance were rated highly. However, low engagement and completion rates reflected challenges common to online interventions. Barriers included limited access duration, participants' time constraints, and difficulties in reaching the target audience. Suggestions included flexible access, advanced content options, and targeted outreach strategies.
Minds Together shows promise as a scalable intervention for family and friends of paramedics. Future research will address barriers, explore long-term outcomes, and refine the program to better meet family and friends' diverse needs, improving mental health support for paramedics and their support network.
•Minds Together is an online program piloted with family and friends supporting the mental health of paramedics.•Program shows promise as a scalable intervention for paramedics' family and friends.•The program was tested in a relevant environment, co-designed and well-planned.•Minds Together rated highly on usefulness, acceptability, practicality, and value.•Reach was comprehensive, however improvement is needed to optimize engagement.
Journal Article
Testing the Moderating Effect of Anti-Prejudice Motivation and Peer Attitudes on the Effectiveness of a School-Based Vicarious Contact Intervention
Vicarious contact has often been used for studying prejudice-reduction in school contexts due to its relatively accessible application through written or audiovisual portrayals of positive intergroup contact. However, these interventions may sometimes prove ineffective, thus restricting their ecological validity and independent use in education. To contribute to the understanding of factors that might facilitate or mitigate the efficacy of vicarious contact in reducing ethnic prejudice among adolescents, the present study tested for the moderating effect of anti-prejudice motivation and friends’ outgroup attitudes. Participants were Finnish secondary school students (N = 334; M = 13.38 years, SD = 0.53; 48% female; 19% ethnic minority) allocated into cluster-randomized intervention (N = 149) and control (N = 185) groups. Participants in the intervention group took part in 4 × 45-min teacher-led intervention sessions. A pretest-posttest design was employed to assess the outgroup attitudes three weeks before the intervention and the follow-up two weeks after. The results showed that adolescents’ intrinsic, but not extrinsic, anti-prejudice motivation and the pre-intervention attitudes of their reciprocal classroom friends positively predicted post-intervention attitudes towards people from different ethnic and cultural groups. However, only extrinsic motivation moderated the intervention effect as the results indicated the intervention to have a detrimental effect on outgroup attitudes among adolescents with less motivation to be non-prejudiced in order to gain social acceptance. This attitudinal backlash among adolescents less susceptible to the social influence of others implies that motivational aspects should not be overlooked when developing school-based intervention programs, especially when social norms are used as a mechanism of attitude change.
Journal Article
Fostering Friendship and Dating Skills Among Adults on the Autism Spectrum: A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Polish Version of the PEERS® for Young Adults Curriculum
PEERS
®
for Young Adults is an evidence-based program aimed at teaching social skills needed to establish and maintain close relationships, including friendship and romantic relationships. The study investigated the effects of the Polish adaptation of the curriculum on the social functioning of adults on the autism spectrum. Fifteen young adults (aged 18–32,
M
= 23.5) were randomly allocated to an immediate or delayed (control) treatment condition. By self and parent report, individuals who participated in the PEERS
®
program showed significant improvements in social skills, social cognition, and social knowledge, but limited gains in social engagement. The effects were maintained over six months after the treatment. The intervention was well-accepted and deemed feasible by young adults, their parents, and peers involved in the program.
Journal Article
Friendship Bench intervention to address depression and improve HIV care engagement among adolescents living with HIV in Malawi: Study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial
Adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic. Comorbid depression is prevalent among adolescents living with HIV (ALWH) and poses numerous challenges to HIV care engagement and retainment. We present a pilot trial designed to investigate feasibility, fidelity, and acceptability of an adapted and an enhanced Friendship Bench intervention (henceforth: AFB and EFB) in reducing depression and improving engagement in HIV care among ALWH in Malawi.
Design: Participants will be randomized to one of three conditions: the Friendship Bench intervention adapted for ALWH (AFB, n = 35), the Friendship Bench intervention enhanced with peer support (EFB, n = 35), or standard of care (SOC, n = 35). Recruitment is planned for early 2024 in four clinics in Malawi. Participants: Eligibility criteria (1) aged 13-19; (2) diagnosed with HIV (vertically or horizontally); (3) scored ≥ 13 on the self-reported Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI-II); (4) living in the clinic's catchment area with intention to remain for at least 1 year; and (5) willing to provide informed consent. Interventions: AFB includes 6 counseling sessions facilitated by young, trained non-professional counselors. EFB consists of AFB plus integration of peer support group sessions to facilitate engagement in HIV care. SOC for mental health in public facilities in Malawi includes options for basic supportive counseling, medication, referral to mental health clinics or psychiatric units at tertiary care hospitals for more severe cases. Outcomes: The primary outcomes are feasibility, acceptability, and fidelity of the AFB and EFB assessed at 6 months and 12 months and compared across 3 arms. The secondary outcome is to assess preliminary effectiveness of the interventions in reducing depressive symptoms and improving HIV viral suppression at 6 months and 12 months.
This pilot study will provide insights into youth-friendly adaptations of the Friendship Bench model for ALWH in Malawi and the value of adding group peer support for HIV care engagement. The information gathered in this study will lead to a R01 application to test our adapted intervention in a large-scale cluster randomized controlled trial to improve depression and engagement in HIV care among ALWH.
ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06173544).
Journal Article