Developing Self–Control Theory towards Digital Sensoring by Smartphone Technologies

• In Event: Cyberbullying, Cyber Deviance, and Digital Sensoring from Smartphones: Empirical Tests of Social Learning and Self-Control Theories

Abstract

The presence of possibilities of committing criminal acts are far-reaching among today’s young generation which cements the concept of self-control as an unavoidable concept in the criminological research. Individuals with low self-control will tend to pursue immediate gratifications, whereas individuals with a high level of self-control will tend to overcome the temptations of immediate gratifications in the pursuit of long-term goals. Previous research has established this based on cognitive and behavioural matter. This paper couples this notion with recent neurological research pointing towards adolescence as a period of heightened brain plasticity, a neurologically formative period, and thus a period where self-control can be moulded and enhanced. We further theorize how new data sources can be introduced in order to in-situ challenges to the youth’s ability to exercise self-control. Drawing on of the viability of heart rate measures, spatial tracking data, arousal levels monitored by smartphone screen behaviour, and various forms of digital sensoring, it is argued that self-control must be addressed in this specific population and that research into this matter can benefit considerably from incorporating metrics from the real-time based digital technology.

Authors

• Jakob Demant, University of Copenhagen

• Marie Bruvik Heinskou, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

• Katarzyna Wac, University of Copenhagen

• Laura Marie Schierff, University of Copenhagen