(Prosocial) Risk Taking in adolescents

Department: Department of Developmental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Summary

Aim of the study:

Adolescence, the phase of the lifespan between childhood and adulthood, is a period of life associated with wide-ranging social, emotional, and cognitive development. During this time, there are normative changes in social attunement, reward-related motivation, and future-oriented thinking. One manifestation of these complex processes in an increase in risk-taking behaviour. Excessive amounts of risk-taking behaviour can lead to adverse consequences in the long term. However, besides the negative forms of risk-taking like binge drinking and substance abuse, it is also expected that adolescents show more prosocial risk-taking behaviour, where you help someone else even though this may impose a risk for yourself.

This project focuses on expanding the knowledge on prosocial risk-taking in adolescence, as more insight in the phenomenon of prosocial risk-taking and the characteristics associated with that can positively stimulate this behaviour over negative and antisocial risk-taking behaviour. This is investigated using an online data collection.

Start date:

September 2022 (but project continues so later is also possible, contact us for possibilities)

End date:

Flexible (duration at least 6 months, longer is possible as well)

Duties:

You will work in a team and together you are responsible for all aspects of the data collection. This includes data collection, participant recruitment and data analysis. The research team has a different dataset available that can be used as the subject for the thesis, as the current data collection is just starting.

We are also testing for a fMRI study, for which data collection would also be part of this Mthesis.

Requirements:

Command of the Dutch language is a must. Good interpersonal skills and affinity to work with youth. For the fMRI data collection availability in weekends for testing.

Supervisors:

Dr. Barbara Braams, drs. Rebecca van Rijn

References:

Do, K. T., Moreira, J. F. G., & Telzer, E. H. (2017). But is helping you worth the risk? Defining prosocial risk taking in adolescence. Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 25, 260-271.

Armstrong-Carter, E., Do, K. T., Moreira, J. F. G., Prinstein, M. J., & Telzer, E. H. (2021). Examining a new prosocial risk-taking scale in a longitudinal sample of ethnically diverse adolescents. Journal of adolescence, 93, 222-233.

Websites:

www.barbarabraams.nl

www.socialeducationalneuroscience.com