University of Twente Student Theses
Het sociale web voor mensen met psychische problemen: kwalitatief onderzoek naar voordelen en risico’s van sociale media voor personen die herstellen van psychische klachten
Maijala, S. (2012) Het sociale web voor mensen met psychische problemen: kwalitatief onderzoek naar voordelen en risico’s van sociale media voor personen die herstellen van psychische klachten.
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| Abstract: | Objective: Mental health recovery is a personal process that involves more than recovering from illness itself. One of the areas of recovery is recovery of social roles and contact with others. Since social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have become more and more a means to maintain social contacts these sites may offer opportunities for people who recover from mental illness. In order to further develop guidance a better insight in the risks en benefits of social media use for persons who recover from mental problems is needed. This study aimed to explore the positive and negative aspects of social media use for people who recover from mental problems. The activities of clients in maintaining contact through social media and the support needs in social media use were also explored. Method: In this qualitative study clients (N=14) and mental health professionals (N=8) of Mediant mental health organization participated in semi-structured interviews. Results: The results demonstrate that social media can contribute to recovery as means to maintain and recover contact with friends, relatives and peers. Contact on social media can provide mental support and help to reduce the feelings of loneliness and social isolation. Negative aspects of social media use were related to handling personal information, interpersonal conflicts, susceptibility for manipulation and online fraud and “SNS Addiction”. The effect of social media use on clients mood depended on the quality of the interactions and tone of messages clients were confronted with. Clients wished to receive support in positive selfpresentation, profile maintenance and protecting their security and privacy online. Conclusion: The results of this study provide insight in positive and negative aspects of social media use for people who recover from mental illness. This study demonstrates that social media sites can play a positive role in recovery from mental illness. Although the benefits of social media use are clear this study also found negative aspects of social media use. Further research is needed in order to specify the possible individual and application factors that may influence the outcome of social media use as a means to recover and maintain social contact for people who recover from mental illness. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Clients: | Mediant |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/62449 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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