Understanding the early formation of attitudes towards emerging technologies, such as quantum science & technology (QS&T), is essential for aligning the effect of science communication in...Show moreUnderstanding the early formation of attitudes towards emerging technologies, such as quantum science & technology (QS&T), is essential for aligning the effect of science communication in practice with its intentions. This study explores the application of natural language processing (NLP) techniques to investigate the influence of news articles on social media comments regarding QS&T. We curated a dataset of 217 articles and 14, 391 top-level comments from Reddit. Employing GPT-4, a semi-automated annotation method was developed to label comments for sentiment and engagement towards QS&T, achieving a Cohen’s kappa of 0.82 when pooling over multiple labelling repetitions and comparing with human annotations. We then used support-vector regression to determine if news article embeddings could be used to predict comment sentiment and engagement. After experimenting with various embedding strategies, including Sentence-BERT and RoBERTa models, no significant correlations were found between article content and comment sentiment or engagement towards QS&T. Further interdisciplinary work in empirical communication research and NLP is suggested to explore alternative representations for news articles and their ability to predict perceptions in news comments.Show less
Deliberate Practice (DP) is widely associated with positive outcomes in skill-based contexts, prompting an investigation into its role in psychotherapists' management of challenging therapy...Show moreDeliberate Practice (DP) is widely associated with positive outcomes in skill-based contexts, prompting an investigation into its role in psychotherapists' management of challenging therapy scenarios for possible future implications into therapist training. This study delves into the intricacies of challenging therapy situations as recounted by psychotherapists and examines the influence of Deliberate Practice (DP) on the themes of these situations and therapists' sentiments. A total of 254 participants engaged in the study via an online survey, facilitated by various psychotherapy organizations, each representing different therapeutic frameworks. The survey, utilizing a mixed-methods approach, encompassed closed and open-ended questions. Participants DP levels were assessed using the Deliberate Practice Scale, while thematic analysis provided a rich comprehension of the qualitative data. The results indicate that there is no relationship between the number of hours a participant spent in DP and the themes they describe as challenging. Next to this, a relationship between confidence and number of hours in DP was found. The nature of the relationship revealed that the more hours a participant spent in DP, the less confident they were. Participants regardless of their DP engagement, described similar themes as challenging. However, a negative relationship between confidence and DP hours surfaced, prompting speculation about potential explanations such as impostor syndrome, burnout, and perfectionism. This correlation underscores the complexity of psychotherapists' experiences and asks for further in-depth exploration.Show less
In 2015, the Sino-ROK bilateral relations were the strongest they had been since the establishment of full diplomatic relations in 1992. Due to increasing North Korean nuclear provocations in the...Show moreIn 2015, the Sino-ROK bilateral relations were the strongest they had been since the establishment of full diplomatic relations in 1992. Due to increasing North Korean nuclear provocations in the following year, the United States and South Korea decided to deploy THAAD, a US missile defense system. China felt that the presence of THAAD on the Korean peninsula infringed on Chinese national security and decided to impose informal sanctions on South Korea. The sanctions damaged the Sino-ROK ties, and Korean people’s opinion on China worsened drastically. This thesis examines the change in sentiment during the THAAD conflict and analyzes whether sentiments have improved since the normalization of the Sino-ROK relations since October of 2017 by performing a comment sentiment analysis on responses to newspaper articles that were published on South Korean online platform Naver during key events in the THAAD dispute. After the evaluation, sentiment analysis proved itself to be a good substitute of survey-based research methods as the results reflected existing polling data. Furthermore, this thesis finds that South Korean commenters’ sentiments in regard to China worsened steadily during the conflict and did not improve in the following years due to new issues and disputes arising between the two countries. The increase in anti-Chinese sentiment in the Korean population could make it more difficult to conduct diplomacy with China in the future.Show less
