Authors

• Stevanovic, Melisa (University of Helsinki. Faculty of Social Sciences)
• Tuhkanen, Samuel (University of Helsinki)
• Järvensivu, Milla (University of Helsinki)
• Valkia, Kaisa (University of Helsinki)

Keywords

decision making, depression, mental health, physiological effects, social interaction

Abstract

The data were collected in a laboratory environment where the participants were divided into pairs and completed various tasks related to dyadic decision-making. The participants' physiological responses to the tasks were measured during the decision-making interaction. The data consist of the time stamps designating when decision-making took place during the interaction and electrodermal activity measured from the participants at these times. During the tasks, the pairs were instructed to come up with suitable adjectives to match the nouns given to them. A comparative design was used to conduct the study. In total, 30 pairs participated in the study: half of the pairs had one participant who had been diagnosed with depression (15 participants), while the other half did not (forming the control group).

The data were collected as part of the 'Participation, joint decision making and social interaction deficits' (VOIS) project. The aim of the project was to utilise an experimental design to examine interaction phenomena connected to joint decision-making. The VOIS project also included other data collections, such as survey data, which are not archived at FSD. The research project was funded by the Academy of Finland and University of Helsinki.

The data consist of two types of CSV files: data collected from pairs and from individual participants. The CSV files containing data from pairs include information on the interactional events that occurred during the tasks. The information consists of the type of the interactional event (adjective proposal, non-acceptance or acceptance), starting and ending times for the event, and speaker (which participant initiated the event).

The files containing data from the individual participants include the time stamp for when a significant change (increase or decrease) in the participant's electrodermal activity (EDA) was triggered (skin conductance responses, SCR), and what the participant's electrodermal activity was at that time. The two types of CSV files can be examined together by using pair and participant IDs and the time stamps.

Background variables included a pair ID and information on whether the participant had been diagnosed with depression. More information on the study and the CSV files is available in Finnish in the related materials of the dataset (bgF3485_fin.pdf).