Abstract
Online peer group approach is inherently a persuasive technique as it is centered on peer pressure and surveillance. They are persuasive social networks equipped with tools and facilities that enable behaviour change. This paper presents the case for domain-specific persuasive social networks and provides insights on problematic and addictive behaviour change. A 4-month study was conducted in an addiction rehab centre in the UK, followed by 2-month study in an online peer group system. The study adopted qualitative methods to understand the broad parameters of peer groups including the sessions’ environment, norms, interaction styles occurring between groups’ members and how such interactions are governed. The qualitative techniques used were (1) observations, (2) form and document analysis, and (3) semi-structured interviews. The findings concern governing such groups in addition to the roles to be enabled and tasks to be performed. The Honeycomb framework was revisited to comment on its building blocks with the purpose of highlighting points to consider when building domain-specific social networks for such domain, i.e. online peer groups to combat addictive behaviour.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Marwick, A.E.: The public domain: social surveillance in everyday life. Surveill. Soc. 9, 378–393 (2012)
Fogg, B.J.: Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do (Interactive Technologies) (2002)
Leth Jespersen, J., Albrechtslund, A., Øhrstrøm, P., Hasle, P., Albretsen, J.: Surveillance, persuasion, and panopticon. In: de Kort, Y., IJsselsteijn, W., Midden, C., Eggen, B., Fogg, B.J. (eds.) PERSUASIVE 2007. LNCS, vol. 4744, pp. 109–120. Springer, Heidelberg (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77006-0_15
Kietzmann, J.H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I.P., Silvestre, B.S.: Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Bus. Horiz. 54, 241–251 (2011)
Cetina, K.K.: Sociality with objects: social relations in postsocial knowledge societies. Theory Cult. Soc. 14, 1–30 (1997)
Pereira, R., Baranauskas, M.: Social software building blocks: revisiting the honeycomb framework. In: 2010 International Conference on Information Society (i-Society). IEEE (2010)
Baranauskas, M.: Socially aware computing. Presented at the Proceedings of VI International Conference on Engineering and Computer Education (2009)
Alrobai, A., McAlaney, J., Phalp, K., Ali, R.: Online peer groups as a persuasive tool to combat digital addiction. In: Meschtscherjakov, A., De Ruyter, B., Fuchsberger, V., Murer, M., Tscheligi, M. (eds.) PERSUASIVE 2016. LNCS, vol. 9638, pp. 288–300. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31510-2_25
Webb, T.L., Sniehotta, F.F., Michie, S.: Using theories of behaviour change to inform interventions for addictive behaviours. Addiction 105, 1879–1892 (2010)
Ajzen, I.: The theory of planned behavior. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 50, 179–211 (1991)
Bandura, A.: Social Foundation of Thought and Action: A Social-Cognitive View. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1986)
Carver, C.S., Scheier, M.F.: Control theory: a useful conceptual framework for personality–social, clinical, and health psychology. Psychol. Bull. 92, 111–135 (1982)
Prochaska, J.O.: Transtheoretical model of behavior change. In: Gellman, M.D., Turner, J.R. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine, pp. 1997–2000. Springer, New York, New York, NY (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_70
Strecher, V.J., Seijts, G.H., Kok, G.J., Latham, G.P., Glasgow, R., DeVellis, B., Meertens, R.M., Bulger, D.W.: Goal setting as a strategy for health behavior change. Health Educ. Behav. 22, 190–200 (1995)
Janz, N.K., Becker, M.H.: The health belief model: a decade later. Health Educ. Q. 11, 1–47 (1984)
Davidson, L., Chinman, M., Kloos, B., Weingarten, R., Stayner, D., Tebes, J.K.: Peer support among individuals with severe mental illness: a review of the evidence. Clin. Psychol. Sci. Pract. 6, 165–187 (2006)
Al-Deen, H., Hendricks, J.A.: Social Media: Usage and Impact (2011)
Alrobai, A., McAlaney, J., Phalp, K., Ali, R.: Exploring the risk factors of interactive e-health interventions for digital addiction. Int. J. Sociotechnol. Knowl. Dev. 8, 1–15 (2016)
Lupton, D.: Discourse analysis: a new methodology for understanding the ideologies of health and illness. Aust. J. Public Health 16, 145–150 (1992)
Alrobai, A.: Engineering Social Networking to Combat Digital Addiction: The Case of Online Peer Groups (2018)
Gorski, T.: Passages Through Recovery. Hazelden Publishing, Center City (2009)
Gorski, T.: Recovery From Addiction: Gorski’s Operational Definition. https://terrygorski.com/2013/10/15/recovery-from-addiction-gorskis-operational-definition/
Marlatt, G.A., Gordon, J.R.: Determinants of relapse: implications for the maintenance of behavior change (1978)
Gorski, T.: The GORSKI-CENAPS Clinical Model. http://www.tgorski.com/clin_mod/clin_mod.htm
Gorski, T.T.: Relapse prevention planning: a new recovery tool. In: Alcohol Health and Research World-National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (1986)
Tuckman, B.W., Jensen, M.A.C.: Stages of small-group development revisited. Group Organ. Manag. 2, 419–427 (1977)
Bates, F.L.: Position, role, and status: a reformulation of concepts. Soc. Forces 34, 313–321 (1956)
Callero, P.L.: From role-playing to role-using: understanding role as resource. Soc. Psychol. Q. 57, 228–243 (1994)
Hare, A.P.: Types of roles in small groups: a bit of history and a current perspective. Small Group Res. 25, 433–448 (1994)
Joinson, A.N.: Self-disclosure in computer-mediated communication: the role of self-awareness and visual anonymity. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 31, 177–192 (2001)
Crawford, K., Gillespie, T.: What is a flag for? Social media reporting tools and the vocabulary of complaint. New Media Soc. 18, 410–428 (2016)
Acknowledgment
This work was partly sponsored by the EROGamb project, funded jointly by GambleAware and Bournemouth University. We also thank StreetScene Addiction Recovery and the Gambling Therapy for their support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this paper
Cite this paper
Alrobai, A., Dogan, H., Phalp, K., Ali, R. (2018). Building Online Platforms for Peer Support Groups as a Persuasive Behavior Change Technique. In: Ham, J., Karapanos, E., Morita, P., Burns, C. (eds) Persuasive Technology. PERSUASIVE 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10809. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78978-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78978-1_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78977-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78978-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)