Essays by Alfes on cyberpsychology: AI trust & ethics (MIT), her term "E-Governmentality" (Harvard), and cybercrime deviance (FHWien).


2024: EXPLORING AI-HUMAN TRUST AND ETHICAL INTERACTION DESIGN -
A MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE 

An academic paper developed at MIT CSAIL

This paper synthesizes key elements of an academic and professional journey as a cyberpsychologist and global health specialist. It emphasizes AI-human trust in healthcare and its broader implications for user experience (UX) design. This reading will examine the interplay between computational models and human behaviour to foster intuitive and ethical AI interactions. Moreover, let us underscore the need for a user-centric AI interaction design framework by drawing insights from cyberpsychology, global health, semiotics, networks for computational social science, neuropsychoanalysis, and decision-making neuroscience. There is also a special focus on enhancing trust, mitigating the privacy paradox, and designing meaningful multimodal communication systems.

Key words: AI-human trust, cyberpsychology, ethical design in HCI, user experience (UX), user interface (UI), healthcare technology, mental health, technology democratization.


2024: E-GOVERNAMEMNTALITY AND INFLUENCERS AS CHARISMATIC AUTHORITIES

An academic paper developed at Harvard University 

In the context of the digital transformation, the most significant political-economic forces at the time, concentred major in the Western and still perpetuated, led the processes of expansion of virtual communication under the prevailing neo-liberal ideology: a stereo-utilitarian vision of cost-effectiveness, resource and demand, capitalistic development, productivity and meritorious utopian beliefs, suiting Foucault's concept of Biopower and Governmentality.
 
Therefore, sustained by rationalized (im)moral values on beliefs of individualization, freedom of choice, self-realization, competitiveness and consumerism, societies succumbed to the advantages and facilities of the Internet, incapable of critical thinking and self-reflection - a consideration inspired by Weber's ideas of rationalization replacing connections and values that propitiate developments of higher reason.

Keywords: E-Governmentality, Foucault, Biopower, Max Weber, Rationalization, Charismatic Authority, Neoliberalism, Digital Transformation, Cyberpsychology, Critical Theory, Sociology of Technology, Influencer Culture.


2023: CYBERCRIME CASE ANALYSIS & APPLIED THEORY 

An academic paper developed at FHWien der WKW  
 Foundations in Cyberpsychology: Applied Deviance Theory
 
However, it is essential to consider that criminal behavior is multifaceted and complex,
impossible to analyze in a unilateral perspective (Stalans & Donner, 2018). Beyond the Dark
Triad traits, other variants could contribute to criminal actions based on traditional theories of
crime and deviance.

Emphasizing the importance of the individuality of the cases for a more accurate prognosis, it is possible, through an integrated analysis, to reflect on the possible causes of Roland Lamin's criminal practices and a significant part of the sexual offenders.

As mentioned before, Hirschi's Theory of Control (2004) states that the lack of meaningful
social relationships (family, friendship, work, religion, institutions) would free the offender
from moral barriers and normative responsibilities.

Worthy note, while psychosocial disorders in women largely promote an anxious attachment pattern, men tend to develop antisocial behaviors (Jonason & Bulyk, 2019). Merton (1957), in Strain Theory (Anomie), suggests that acts of violence arise from the high tensions of life's challenges, in contrast to the person's limited cultural ability to deal with situations due to the impediments of the environment. The Theory of Learned Behavior (Sutherlan, 1956) states that the criminal attitude is learned by living in deviant environments and absorbing people's values. It is also pertinent to consider the Neutralization Theory (Sykes and Matza, 1957)... 


Keywords: Cybercrime, Deviance Theory, Criminology, Dark Triad, Control Theory, Strain Theory, Learned Behavior Theory, Neutralization Theory, Cyberpsychology, Criminal Psychology