University of Twente Student Theses
Op Verhaal Komen online : een onderzoek naar de invloed van lotgenotencontact op de depressieve symptomen van de deelnemers
Werner, C. (2014) Op Verhaal Komen online : een onderzoek naar de invloed van lotgenotencontact op de depressieve symptomen van de deelnemers.
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| Abstract: | Introduction: Depression is one of the most frequently occurring diseases in the world, which has strong negative consequences for the affected person. A method that is used to treat people with depressive symptoms is the method of Life Review in combination with Narrative Therapy. The online self-help course Op Verhaal Komen, which is offered by the University of Twente for elderly people with minor depressive symptoms, makes use of this method. Within the course, participants do have the opportunity to communicate with each other and to give each other feedback via an online forum. At the moment, nothing is known about the interaction patterns of the participants from this course. This research analyses the interaction between the participants and finds out if this influences the effect of the course. Methods: Participants of this study were the members of the online course Op Verhaal Komen, especially those who followed the course with peer-to-peer interaction. All in all there were 20 participants in the range of 41-73 years. The lessons from the participants were analysed by means of a coding-scheme. The degree of their depressive symptoms was determined through their score from the pre- and the post-test of the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). By means of a t-test, a One-Way Anova and a Chi-Square it was determined to what extent there was a difference in the interactions between participants whose depressive symptoms did decline and participants whose depressive symptoms did not decline. Results: This research shows that the interaction patterns of the participants do not significantly differ between the six lessons. Only in the lesson about “Work and Care”, participants got significant longer reactions than in the other lessons. In addition to that, this study shows that there is no significant difference between the interaction patterns of the participants whose depressive symptoms are declined and participants whose depressive symptoms are not declined. Furthermore, this study reveals that the participants do not make great use of the possibility to interact with each other. Discussion: The interaction between the participants does not influence the effect of the intervention. Explanations for these results are found in the characteristics of the participants and the setup of this study. An explanation for the fact that the longest reactions are found in the lesson “Work and care” can be that the sample is very sensitive for this topic at the moment. In addition to that, the sample was very small which leads to few data that can be analysed. Further research about interaction patterns of participants from online courses is claimed, to get more detailed information about this topic. Thereby it is possible to improve the online course Op Verhaal Komen and other future online interventions. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology BSc (56604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/65821 |
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