Tag Archives: profile

Facebook Activity Reveals Clues to Mental Illness, says MU Researcher

Analysis of social media use could give therapists more complete view of patients’ health

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Facebook activity provided a window into the psychological health of participants in a study at the University of Missouri. Social media profiles could eventually be used as tools for psychologists and therapists, according to study leader Elizabeth Martin, doctoral student in MU’s psychological science department in the College of Arts and Science.

“Therapists could possibly use social media activity to create a more complete clinical picture of a patient,” Martin said. “The beauty of social media activity as a tool in psychological diagnosis is that it removes some of the problems associated with patients’ self-reporting. For example, questionnaires often depend on a person’s memory, which may or may not be accurate. By asking patients to share their Facebook activity, we were able to see how they expressed themselves naturally. Even the parts of their Facebook activities that they chose to conceal exposed information about their psychological state.” (more…)

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Five U.S. Urban Counties Lead ‘Terror Hot Spots’ List, but Rural Areas Not Exempt: Research

*N.Y., L.A., Miami, San Francisco, D.C. Top List; Maricopa, Ariz. Rising*

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Nearly a third of all terrorist attacks from 1970 to 2008 occurred in just five metropolitan U.S. counties, but events continue to occur in rural areas, spurred on by domestic actors, according to a report published today by researchers in the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence based at the University of Maryland.

The research was conducted at Maryland and the University of Massachusetts-Boston. (more…)

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