The interplay between psychology and computers is crucial to innovation and design of technology with a focus on the user. It’s also where a lot of unintentional injuries to people occur. That’s why we need psychologists to play a bigger role in tech development–particularly given that many technology companies change human behavior at scale and profit from behavioral changes, and generally embrace scientific innovation.
Traditionally, psychological research is based on two main methods of data collection such as lab tests and surveys or interviews [1]. The former study a particular aspect in a controlled, small environment; the latter evaluate more general behavior with self-report questionnaires or (potentially structured) interviews. Both have inherent limitations.
Computers, however, are able to capture and analyze huge amounts of information at a rapid speed, and in ways that traditional methods are unable to. This makes them powerful new tools for psychologists and open up a new area of research. For example, a new field called Psycho(neuro)informatics is emerging that merges psychology and computer science to develop models of human brains and intelligence. This requires a team of experts: psychologists who have domain expertise, and computer scientists with the knowledge to design large-scale tracking systems as well as manage and analyze the resulting data.
But until recently, there was little cooperation between the two fields. Google directors, for instance are more likely to have studied computational and computer sciences (29 percent) than www.rebootdata.net/generated-post-2/ psychology (less than 2percent). This has resulted in the absence of psychology within the leadership of tech companies. This has led to the result that many technology products do not consider psychological factors.