Understanding Mental Health Apps

This is the first book to look exclusively from at the use of MHapps from an applied psychosocial perspective. Much of the academic literature on MHapps in psychology focuses on the clinical efficacy of using apps (e.g., depression reduction as result of using a certain app) and will typically report on the use of randomised controlled trials (or a similar method) to illustrate the use of apps as a tool for improving a psychological condition. Therefore, the main benefit of this book is that it recognises the impact of apps from a social perspective and will aim to show how everyday forms of distress are embedded in the use of these apps and the broader set of relations that constitute people’s everyday lives. The content of this book will identify how an applied social perspective can offer insight into the power of apps to shape our sense of ourselves and of others. This book will be of use to educators and students in psychology, sociology, health studies, media studies and cultural studies. Lewis Goodings is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK. He is interested in the intersections between digital technologies and mental health. His work is dedicated to an applied version of social psychology that focuses on the role of space and place, with an overriding interest on the affective aspects of interaction. Darren Ellis is a Senior Lecturer of Psychology at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK. He is interested in emotion and affect studies, everyday experiences of surveillance, social media, and emotional disclosure. He is a social psychologist and practicing psychotherapist. Ian Tucker is a Professor of Health and Social Psychology at the University of East London (UEL) in London, UK. He focuses on mental health, emotion, and affect with a specific focus on how they are shaped through interactions with digital technologies. He has published widely in these areas, including Emotion in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2020).