Background: Studying the effects of mobile health (m-health) apps is crucial for providing accessible mental healthcare to people at high risk for psychopathology, such as adolescents during the...Show moreBackground: Studying the effects of mobile health (m-health) apps is crucial for providing accessible mental healthcare to people at high risk for psychopathology, such as adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, investigating elements such as real-time personalized feedback are essential to understand what underpins the effectiveness of m-health. The Grow It! app is a multiplayer serious gaming m-health app for adolescents aged 12 to 25 aimed at identification of emotional problems and improving well-being. This study aimed to improve suboptimal app activity (i.e., amount of experience sampling method questionnaires completed) by incorporating feedback in the form of an emotion overview chart into the app. Furthermore, this study wanted to investigate changes in affective and cognitive wellbeing and assess how users rate the emotion overview. Method: Adolescents (N = 143) played Grow It! for three weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants filled in a questionnaire before and after playing the app, to measure differences in affective (measured on a 7-point Likert scale) and cognitive (measured on a 10-point Likert scale) well-being. The emotion overview was evaluated with four questions. Results: After conducting two paired samples t-tests, I found that affective well-being significantly increased by 0.29 points, t(142) = 3.30, p < .001 (one-tailed), d = .28. Forty percent (40%) of individuals experienced increases. Cognitive well-being significantly increased with 0.44 points, t(142) = 3.17, p < .001 (one-tailed), d = .27. Forty-nine percent (49%) of individuals experienced increases. After conducting a one-way ANOVA, I found that app activity was significantly higher for users playing Grow It! with the emotion overview included, F(2,1335) = 53.13, p < .001. User evaluations were overall positive with the emotion overview being a welcomed addition. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate successful replication of previous studies and support gamification theories on the usefulness of real-time personalized feedback. The addition of the emotion overview seems valuable for increasing app activity and positive app evaluations. Further research with a control group is recommended to be able to make any substantial claims on the effectiveness of Grow It! and what added value the emotion overview provides.Show less
Why do Member States, that are similar in many aspects, still have varying levels of compliance? As current compliance theories are unable to answer this question a new theory has been developed...Show moreWhy do Member States, that are similar in many aspects, still have varying levels of compliance? As current compliance theories are unable to answer this question a new theory has been developed that adds an historical aspect into compliance research: the challenging attitude approach. This theory proposes that earlier adopted attitudes by Member States, that range from agreeable to challenging, which they display before, during and after infringement proceedings, affect future compliance. Member States initially base these attitudes on a normative assumption about the importance of compliance to a policy field. For this research the Netherlands has been compared to Belgium, which yearly faces twice the amount of infringement proceedings as the Netherlands. Portugal has been to Spain, which faces from 10% more to twice the amount of infringement proceedings as Portugal. Their portrayed attitudes in regards to the Dangerous Substances Directive and the Birds Directive have been studied. This research showed, however, that Belgium did not adopt a challenging attitude more often than the Netherlands. Spain did adopt a challenging attitude more often than Portugal. There was also great variation displayed by Member States in adopted attitude per directive. However, there appears to be a correlation between adopted attitude and future compliance. More research is needed to make substantial claims about the challenging attitude approach.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
open access
Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a data collection method in which participants’ current behaviors and experiences are sampled repeatedly in their natural environment. EMA has advantages...Show moreEcological momentary assessment (EMA) is a data collection method in which participants’ current behaviors and experiences are sampled repeatedly in their natural environment. EMA has advantages over retrospective research methods, in that it reduces retrospective bias, increases ecological validity, and offers the possibility to observe dynamical changes of variables. However, EMA protocols are burdensome for participants and may interfere with their daily activities. This can lead to non-compliance over the course of a study. Missing data can subsequently decrease statistical power, and even induce bias. This paper explored whether missing data can be predicted by various variables related to students’ primary motivation to participate, mental health, stress levels, and demographics. We analyzed data of the first cohort (N = 418) of the ongoing WARN- D project on student mental health. Participants completed a comprehensive baseline survey and took part in an 85-day long EMA study. We predicted overall rates of non- compliance by participant characteristics at baseline (Analysis 1) and weekly rates of non- compliance by time-varying factors during the EMA stage (Analysis 2). Analysis 1 showed that overall non-compliance can be predicted by baseline measures such as age, depression, substance use, and primary motivation to participate. Analysis 2 showed that weekly assessed time-varying measures like time into study, enjoyment of the study, weekly stress, anxiety, and depression may predict weekly rates of non-compliance. Participant’s sex and smartphone operating system were not related to overall non-compliance. Summarizing, non-compliance rates of participants can be predicted by participant characteristics at baseline as well as by time-varying predictors. Our findings may inform future research on potential mechanisms behind noncompliance in EMA designs that should be considered to maximize participation rates while avoiding biased conclusions.Show less
This research investigates the compliance with European Union law in the policy area of internal market in Hungary. The study focuses on economic and political motivations for non-compliance. It...Show moreThis research investigates the compliance with European Union law in the policy area of internal market in Hungary. The study focuses on economic and political motivations for non-compliance. It gives an overview of the Hungarian EU membership by exploring the political situation and the implementation performance of the country. Two case studies are presented that aim to analyse the advantages, benefits and disadvantages, possible consequences of non-compliance. The thesis argues that national political preferences and governments of the EU member states play an important role in compliance.Show less
This thesis aims to assess the effectiveness of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in protecting Human Rights in Russia, specifically in Chechnya. The thesis investigates Russia’s compliance...Show moreThis thesis aims to assess the effectiveness of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in protecting Human Rights in Russia, specifically in Chechnya. The thesis investigates Russia’s compliance to the Council of Europe’s regulatory criteria. Therefore, it first focuses on analysing the literature on the Council of Europe, the ECHR and Russia. After which, the thesis considers the different theories of compliance and how Russian power can be qualified. Next, it looks in detail to the Chechen case. It is a particularly extreme case for Human Rights violation. In Chechnya, there are frequent cases of Human Rights violations, such as abduction, torture, and killings. One recent example is the gay purges, showing the precarious situation of homosexuals who are subject to violence.Show less
