Running Head: IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON PSYCHOLOGY
Impact of Technology on Psychology
Student
Selected Topic in Psychology
Professor
June 3, 2018
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IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON PSYCHOLOGY
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Introduction
The advent of technology has been a big breakthrough in the world with numerous
benefits filtered through ecological evolution and revolution. In wide expanse of benefits and
usefulness, contemporary world has been highly impacted in both corporate and public world.
Indirect coercion from fast pacing world instills indirect push to those stigmatized in their status
quo not to adapt to change. A wide spectrum of society today highly interacts with technology
thus drawing a close oration to adapt to the trending facets of Information Technology (IT).
However numerous merits that it accrues, it also holds a flip side of hefty demerits which can be
overwhelming and can be catastrophic. In wide realm of captivity, its impact can be
psychological and brought by environmentally mankind activities for instance pollution amidst
others. Different case analysis articulates technology to psychologically affect users’ attention
spans thus resulting in therapeutic programs to remedy status (Henriksen et al., 2015). In this
theoretical comparison paper, a discussion of the theory through the use of past and present
literature will be used to address some of the impact of technology to users.
Case analysis through Theories
Theories hold basis of the sustained explanation of phenomenological scenarios through
supported facts to find definitive curiosity to an experiment through observations. In the field of
psychology, several studies have used theories to give feasible lime-light to research. In fact,
such resources act as a blueprint for successive research development which would ultimately
define thesis for research. Scientists have made milestone to narrow their research in fine fabrics
to ensure the scope of the world can possibly unmask the unknown variable. Field of psychology
use theory as a test of time to determine the efficacy of the learning process. Intensified use of
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psychology in management through analysis and understanding the basic daily routine forms
platform form study (Peters, 2015).
A behavioral aspect of the human life cycle is a reflective and broad-based research that
is being built through the use of behavioral phenology which came as an aspect of theoretical
psychology. These give the relevance of the study of human life and integration of wisdom
through theoretical analysis that is built on historical research and keep changing ecology. This
makes theories hold perceptual way of thought which marrows into the individual school of
thought subject to criticism and support. Depending on distinct and refined nature of explanation
we then adopt a factual rationalization of their impact on nature. Therefore through hypothesis,
building founding facts on which scientist refine their model to draw a deep understanding of the
unexplained variables is easy. The revolutionized world has brought technology in varied pacts,
one of which is the use of automobiles such as smartphones. It was one of the industrial
milestone achievements that have brought distance geography through single dials (Morelli et al.,
2017). The global village of internet acts as a vast hub of information and as an interactive
platform with an easy link across the globe. These are just but a few developments that have
been brought by technology; however, it holds a huge number of impacts on human social life.
The millennial generation is deeply glued to their automobiles without necessarily having
anything important address in them, for instance, addictive entertainment. Social media holds
close peripheral of vast interactive activities that get all generational level hooked to its dirking
attention. This gives technology cognitive agility influence to its users who with time experience
memory lapse or concentration. Some would use technology to restore out items through
reminders or sticky note notification amidst others. This has been seen to reduce our intelligent
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quotient due to a high reliance on simple things for instance use of calculators. This is one of the
imperative functional impacts in human cognitive behaviors.
The social comparison theory states that humans observe themselves and make inferences
that have an effect on their self-esteem by comparing to other people. This has been seen through
the use of technology in social media and other attention-drawing technology activities. Effluent
people or business use social platform’s to showcase some of their products. Equally, others are
using social media to showcase their life status. Some of these activities are differently
interpreted by others who would intimidate through selfish posting to lower other people’s
esteems. Emulating from these people cause psychological trauma and a feeling of inadequacy,
which is common to the young generation. Therefore, following people like fashion stars acts as
a helm for advertisement platform to pass across to the audience messages on trendy fashions.
Through these, many become engrossed to such and would wish to adapt to the trend which
often offset their usual behavioral habits in just pursuit of imitation (Olson et al., 2014).
Another theory that has some significance in relation to technology is the system
justification theory which states that people have various underlying needs that drive them. The
needs lead to the justification of the existing status quo. This limits evolutionary change in
society as it makes people rationalize what is occurring in the world and how things are done.
Therefore, it builds an accepting culture and tradition which is tagged to possible drawbacks in
individual’s life (Hogg, 2016). This shows a strong support for technology by users thus
approves the system justification theory which overlooks disadvantages. Even though it is
regarded to bring the enjoyment of economies of scale especially to manufacturing industry, it
consequently leads to unemployment. Equally, through its fast communication attribute, it has
also come with hefty adversarial of misuse of social media. Various theorists globally have been
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involved in the formulation of theories that explain the phenomena in life to explain the nature.
However, some of the theories are not entirely true as some explain the contrast to what they
strive to prove over the years.
Technology ease life through efficiency and effective delivery especially when the
artificial intelligence such as robotics is tasks oriented. This shows the probability of machinery
replacing the craftsmanship of mankind. Evidently, this has led to a wide spectrum of
psychological problems that are related to depression, addiction, Stress, Anxiety and low selfesteem. Depression is a state of a pervasive low status through which information access
through technology brings in misery. In addition, comparison on social media can lead to
depression through emulation to some of the affluent socialites. This has led to over-reliance on
technology which has suppressed the human ability of craftsmanship. The ultimate focal point is
low underperformance with the mismatched character of societal ethics for instance driving
while texting. Indifferently, technology can spur stress and anxiety disorder which can be
manifested in agitation or stressed. Therefore with a high propensity for such condition, there is
the likelihood of one suffering from psychiatric intervention (Carrier et., 2015). The social
comparison theory expounds on this impact as it can lead to low self-esteem which undermines
success.
Social comparison can be a bolster to our self-esteem in cases whereby we compare
ourselves to others and we realize we are successful and doing better than most people. It pushes
us to work harder but at times it demotivates us and we are unable to function at our optimum.
Irwin Altman developed the social penetration theory which states that as people develop
relationships with others the communication shifts from being shallow to being more intimate
over time as familiarity is built upon. Social media as a facet of technology is a better case study
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for this theory where interactive platforms act as global community arena facilitated through
technology. However social penetration theory has been greatly propagated by the advent of
technology, there have been some numerous pitfalls for instance limitation in connectivity to a
different social class. The friendships on social media are mostly superficial and do not compare
to strong interpersonal relationships formed in person. Finally, the eminent act of technology is
cyber-bullying besides accessory to unsolicited sites which derail the morality of young
generation who are accustomed to tech gadget. In summary, technology has brought in new
innovations that spark interesting curiosity to develop the products. However, it is shown to
propagate the social erosion and adverse effects to users of different kinds.
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Reference
Carrier, L. M., Spradlin, A., Bunce, J. P., & Rosen, L. D. (2015). Virtual empathy: Positive and
negative impacts of going online upon empathy in young adults. Computers in Human
Behavior, 52, 39-48.
Henriksen, E. K., Dillon, J., & Ryder, J. (Eds.). (2015). Understanding student participation and
choice in science and technology education. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.
Hogg, M. A. (2016). Social identity theory. In Understanding peace and conflict through social
identity theory (pp. 3-17). Springer, Cham.
Morelli, N., Potosky, D., Arthur, W., & Tippins, N. (2017). A call for conceptual models of
technology in IO psychology: An example from technology-based talent
assessment. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 10(4), 634-653.
Olson, J. M., Herman, C. P., & Zanna, M. P. (2014). Relative deprivation and social comparison:
An integrative perspective. In Relative Deprivation and Social Comparison (pp. 13-28).
Psychology Press.
Peters, R. S. (2015). Psychology and Ethical Development (Routledge Revivals): A Collection of
Articles on Psychological Theories, Ethical Development and Human Understanding.
Routledge.
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