Key Ideas
- Technology has revolutionized the way we approach health and well-being, offering new tools for prevention, treatment, and support.
- While these advancements have increased accessibility and convenience, they also raise questions about effectiveness, equity, and potential risks.
Challenges in Research
- Isolating Variables: It is difficult to isolate the variables in question from existing factors.
- Sampling Bias: Much research on this topic is done on young college students who are skilled at technology. Therefore, the results may not be generalizable to older populations.
- Researcher Bias: This depends on the views of the researcher and stakeholders involved.
- All these factors demonstrate that research is usually correlational in this field of study.
Case study
Tanja-Dijkstra (2011)
Aim
Does being able to see medical equipment affect well-being?
Method
- Participants were asked to roleplay being hospitalized with appendicitis. The surgery was successful but they had to stay for 3 days.
- Participants were presented with pictures of a hospital with medical equipment either visible or not visible.
- Participants completed surveys on stress, trust in the hospital, and how nice the hospital room looked.
Results
- Stress: Participants were less stressed when the equipment was not visible.
- Aesthetics: Both rooms were rated equally nice in aesthetics.
- Trust: Equipment not being visible led to more trust in the hospital.
Link to Concepts
- Responsibility: When measuring variables such as stress, it is important to follow ethical guidelines and ensure that participants are not placed under more stress than necessary.
- Measurement: The study used quantitative surveys to yield results, which were then analyzed through an ANOVA test.
