Positive technology: developing positive affect through implementing positive psychology in an interactive search system design
Issue Date
2023-07Subjects
positive technologywell-being
wellbeing
emotions
information search behaviour
positive psychology theory
Subject Categories::C841 Health Psychology
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
There is no doubt that our lives are becoming more digital, reliant on interactive devices or digital services. One of the most significant changes observed in recent years is the large and growing number of people obtaining health information online, making it the most popular medium for obtaining health-related information. Online access to health information has the potential to educate and assist people about the nature, causes, prevention, and treatment of specific health conditions. Furthermore, access to online health information has the potential to increase the anxieties of people with little or no medical training, especially when used as a diagnostic procedure. This increases negative emotions among health information searchers. Regardless of the concerns raised about the impact of online health information on user emotions, a better understanding of identifying and improving user emotional states for online health information searches is required. A positive emotional state is an important factor in increasing personal satisfaction in humans. On the other hand, a negative emotional state can result in social or psychological well-being issues. A novel research area called "Positive Technology" has emerged, which is a scientific and applied approach to designing technologies to improve human emotions and well-being. Positive technology combines Positive Psychology objectives with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) advancements. This research presents the methodological and applied approach to propose a positive search interface design by applying the Hedonic level approach. The proposed information search interface focused on designing and developing novel digital experiences that aim to promote positive changes through pleasure, meaning and engagement to improve emotions, health information search behaviour and well-being. Online health information search tasks are used as the context for an experimental investigation. Three types of online health information search tasks (easy/happy, neutral, complex/difficult) are given to the participants (N = 25), students recruited from the University of Bedfordshire. The participants provided two information search interface designs for two experiments: the baseline search interface design (BSID), with a no-design approach, and the proposed positive search interface design (PSID) to perform three online health information search tasks. A mixed-method approach is applied using physiological measures such as galvanic skin response (GSR) and eye-tracker and self-reporting. Results show that positive design helped improve users’ emotional intensity with improved visual attention compared to the baseline interface design results. The statistical analysis shows the significance difference observed for the positive affect with the proposed positive design. The statistical analysis shows the proposed positive design helped to improve pleasure and engagement in individuals, improved health information search behaviour in terms of online interaction and query reformulation, and improved health information search task performance and search process experience for easy/happy and complex tasks. No significance difference was observed for search process experience for the neutral task. A significance difference is observed for the query reformulations and change in query formulation behaviour. However, interface design has no effect on the website selection for online health information. Statistical results show significance differences in the well-being characteristics of CBT, such as thought processes, positive emotions and actions. In contrast, no significance difference is observed for the well-being characteristics of behaviour and physical feelings. The future work includes combining multiple physiological measures to get a deeper understanding of the variety of emotional responses to interface designs. Also, a deeper understanding of health information search behaviours is required to investigate the impact of positive interface design on query change behaviour.Citation
Khan, S.S. (2023) 'Positive Technology: Developing Positive Affect Through Implementing Positive Psychology in an Interactive Search System Design.' PhD thesis. University of Bedfordshire.Publisher
University of BedfordshireType
Thesis or dissertationLanguage
enDescription
A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyCollections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Global consumer culture positioning: the use of global consumer culture positioning appeals across four European countriesThis study proposes a framework of advertising appeals which could be used to express global consumer culture positioning (GCCP) strategy in advertising. The paper examines the use of such appeals in print advertising from four European countries comparing 847 advertisements for durable and non-durable goods from Poland, Hungary, Ireland and the UK. Contrary to expectations, GCCP appeals were more often used in advertisements for non-durable goods than durable goods. The study confirmed the expectation that GCCP appeals would be more frequently used in advertising in less developed markets than in more developed markets. The proposed framework of GCCP appeals may be useful to practitioners wishing to use this positioning strategy.
-
Role of Hedgehog signalling at the transition from double-positive to single-positive thymocyteIn the thymus, developing T cells receive signals that determine lineage choice, specificity, MHC restriction and tolerance to self‐antigen. One way in which thymocytes receive instruction is by secretion of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) from thymic epithelial cells. We have previously shown that Hedgehog (Hh) signalling in the thymus decreases the CD4:CD8 single‐positive (SP) thymocyte ratio. Here, we present data indicating that double‐positive (DP) thymocytes are Hh‐responsive and that thymocyte‐intrinsic Hh signalling plays a role in modulating the production of CD4+ (SP4), CD8+ (SP8) and unconventional T‐cell subsets. Repression of physiological Hh signalling in thymocytes altered the proportions of DP and SP4 cells. Thymocyte‐intrinsic Hh‐dependent transcription also attenuated both the production of mature SP4 and SP8 cells, and the establishment of peripheral T‐cell compartments in TCR‐transgenic mice. Additionally, stimulation or withdrawal of Hh signals in the WT foetal thymus impaired or enhanced upregulation of the CD4 lineage‐specific transcription factor Gata3 respectively. These data together suggest that Hh signalling may play a role in influencing the later stages of thymocyte development.
-
Exploring systemic positioning in everyday conversations in communities: an embodied reflexive inquiryThis is a systemic practice doctorate where research is undertaken through a social and relational constructionist lens (McNamee and Hosking, 2012) under a broader umbrella of systemic qualitative research practice. A philosophical orientation to inquiry is taken, offering a way of exploring encounters, and specifically conversations in practice, in an embodied relational and dialogical way from within the experience. This locates me as an active participant alongside other active participants, and self- and relational reflexivity feature centrally within a systemic approach to practice and inquiry. The specific inquiry focus is on embodied, reflexive processes as I engage with others in everyday conversations on issues that matter to different professional and non-professional individuals and community groups; it is a complex ecology. Systemic, embodied, relational concepts are explored through a lens that sees inquiry as philosophically informed. This acknowledges the professional, personal and multiple contexts that inform both the doing and being in each conversation within practice and inquiry. The multi-versa of individuals and groups, professional and non-professional are examined through attention to moments of conversation portrayed through vignettes and dialogical excerpts. I try to capture a sense of the living dynamic of each of the interactions through attention to my multi-vocal inner dialogue and the multiplicity of felt experiences within these conversations where I am moved, stirred, unsettled and fully embodied: I become the case study in the ebbs and flows of this experience. How I inform these processes, and how I am informed by the responses of others, comes under close scrutiny. Attention is given to reciprocal responses, my internal dialogue, as I respond to what has gone before, external moves within these relational unfolding conversational encounters, how the conversation is experienced by those involved, and how we move on together. This inquiry focuses on embodied relational processes within the multiple complex dynamic of these conversations, unpacking our ways of ‘going on’ together (Wittgenstein, 1953). Autoethnography (Finlay, 2002; Ellis, 2004; Etherington, 2004), self- and relational reflexivity (1992), Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) (Pearce, 1994), and the process of writing itself are some of the concepts employed to enter this complexity. The unique additional inquiry tool introduced, alongside these, is the personal metaphor of rock climbing. This is chosen because of the fit I consider it has within a conceptual frame of relational embodiment, emphasising the ‘I’, a systemic practitioner and climber, as an embodied being with other embodied beings in conversation. I enter this process of inquiry with openness to enable change and to be changed, and I hope to challenge some established ideas about research. I consider the extent to which the metaphor illuminates embodied, self- and relationally reflexive processes in the context of systemic inquiry. The usefulness and application of this metaphor is tested as an embodied reflexive tool. I explore whether ways of thinking about and understanding embodied relational and dynamic processes can be extended. New features that come to light in the process of this inquiry are explored and the insights that may emerge, along with possible contributions to systemic inquiry and practice, are considered. The wider use of metaphors emerging through the dialogue that people offer to describe experience and to capture a sense of lived moments opens further potential for new learning. The reflexive scope and use of metaphor generally is discussed at the end, along with personal and professional learning from the process of writing and inquiry. I propose a new lens to reflexive inquiry that is suited to systemic practice, embodied reflexive inquiry in which I draw attention to embodied reflexive detailed features within interactions between people. This has wide-ranging applications in systemic and other contexts, including community settings, systemic therapy, training and supervision and across different professional networks, and is explored here. My hope is that this inquiry will to add to the growing field of systemic inquiry texts.
