A Trip to the Moon: Personalized Animated Movies for Self-reflection

Self-tracking physiological and psychological data poses the challenge of presentation and interpretation. Insightful narratives for self-tracking data can motivate the user towards constructive self-reflection. One powerful form of narrative that engages audience across various culture and age groups is animated movies. We collected a week of self-reported mood and behavior data from each user and created in Unity a personalized animation based on their data. We evaluated the impact of their video in a randomized control trial with a non-personalized animated video as control. We found that personalized videos tend to be more emotionally engaging, encouraging greater and lengthier writing that indicated self-reflection about moods and behaviors, compared to non-personalized control videos

Fostering college and career readiness: how career development activities in schools impact on graduation rates and students' life success

This paper sets out the recent evidence around career development. This evidence is examined within the context of the college and career readiness agenda. The argument is made that in order for young people to be genuinely “ready” for both college and career they need to have attended to their academic achievement, their aspirations and plans for the future, their ability to make transitions and their ability to direct their own careers. It is argued that career development offers schools a body of practice that has been shown to have a positive impact on young people’s readiness for college and career. The report acknowledges that the provision of career development has been in decline in many North American schools despite evidence of its effectiveness. Given the current instability of the labor market, the increasing complexity of the education system and the need to grow the skills base of the workforce in a competitive global market, failing to attend to young people’s careers seems shortsighted. As this paper shows, there is a strong body of evidence which demonstrates that career development activity in schools can help young people to experience academic achievement, successfully transition to the labor market and live happier and more productive lives. It is hoped that setting out the evidence in this area of research will provide policy makers and school leaders with the resources required to make informed decisions and to support the development of the future generations of talent. The paper explores the impacts of career development in relation to four main questions: • Does career development engage young people in their schooling and help keep them attending school? • Does career development positively impact on young people’s academic achievement? • Does career development assist young people in making successful transitions to college or the labor market? • Does career development have a positive effect on people’s career and life success?Career Cruisin

Editorial: Positive Technology: Designing E-experiences for Positive Change

While there is little doubt that our lives are becoming increasingly digital, whether this change is for the better or for the worse is far from being settled. Rather, over the past years concerns about the personal and social impacts of technologies have been growing, fueled by dystopian Orwellian scenarios that almost on daily basis are generously dispensed by major Western media outlets. According to a recent poll involving some 1,150 experts, 47% of respondents predict that individuals’ well-being will bemore helped than harmed by digital life in the next decade, while 32% say people’s well-being will bemore harmed than helped. Only 21% of those surveyed indicated that the impact of technologies on people well-being will be negligible compared to now (Pew Research Center, 2018)

‘Look, I have my ears open’: Resilience and early school experiences among children in an economically deprived suburban area in Ireland

Children from economically disadvantaged communities frequently lack the socio- emotional, cognitive and behavioural skills needed for successful early school adjustment. Assessments of early school experience often rely on parent and teacher perspectives, yet children’s views are essential to design effective, resilience-promoting school ecologies. This mixed methods study explored children’s appraisals of potential stressors in the first school year with 25 children from a disadvantaged suburban community in Ireland. School scenarios were presented pictorially (Pictorial Measure of School Stress and Wellbeing, or PMSSW), to elicit children’s perspectives on social ecological factors that enable or constrain resilience. Salient positive factors included resource provision, such as food, toys and books; school activities and routines, including play; and relationships with teachers. Negative factors included bullying; difficulties engaging with peers; and using the toilet. Drawing on these factors, we indicate how school psychologists can develop resilience-fostering educational environments for children in vulnerable communitie

Malicious User Experience Design Research for Cybersecurity

This paper explores the factors and theory behind the user-centered research that is necessary to create a successful game-like prototype, and user experience, for malicious users in a cybersecurity context. We explore what is known about successful addictive design in the fields of video games and gambling to understand the allure of breaking into a system, and the joy of thwarting the security to reach a goal or a reward of data. Based on the malicious user research, game user research, and using the GameFlow framework, we propose a novel malicious user experience design approac

Interneti võimalused ja ohud: noorte online-praktikate mõju nende subjektiivsele heaolule

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Teismelised on ühed kõige aktiivsemad internetikasutajad ja internet moodustab loomuliku osa nende igapäevaelust. Kuna internet on siiski suhteliselt uus meedium, mille kasutust ei raamista väga kindlad normid, kuid mille noored on väga kiirelt ja aktiivselt omaks võtnud, ärgitab see küsima, millist mõju internetikasutus noortele avaldab – kas positiivset või negatiivset. Heaolu kontseptsioonist lähtudes on doktoritöös vaatluse all nii internetikasutuse positiivsed kui ka negatiivsed küljed ning nende mõju noorte elukvaliteedile. Viimane aspekt on eriti oluline, kuna teismeiga on üks olulisemaid arenguperioode. Doktoritöös olid vaatluse all noorte online-praktikad – ühelt poolt blogimine kui positiivne ja teiselt poolt ülemäärane internetikasutus kui problemaatiline praktika – ning see, kuidas ja missugustel tingimustel need suurendavad või vähendavad noore heaolu. Nii meediumi valikut kui kasutust kujundavad laiemad kontekstuaalsed tegurid nagu vanus, sugu ja sotsiaalne keskkond (näiteks suhted pere ja eakaaslastega) ning ühiskondlikud tingimused (kultuuriline tasand), milles inimene elab, aga ka meediumi enda või selle rakenduste omadused. Seega võib järeldada, et just kontekst loob ja määrab internetikasutuse võimalikud positiivsed või negatiivsed tulemid. Internetikasutusel võivad olla erinevad tagajärjed. Näiteks avaldavad noored blogides enamasti tõele vastavat sisu, millega nad kujundavad enda identiteeti ja hoiavad sotsiaalseid suhteid, või mis pakub võimalust pälvida tunnustust eakaaslaste hulgas. Samas jagavad noored blogis enda kohta intiimset infot, millel võivad olla negatiivsed tagajärjed. Ülemäärane internetikasutus on seotud nii psühholoogiliste probleemide, internetis veedetava aja kui ka noore digitaalsete oskustega ja sellega, mida ta online-keskkonnas teeb. Ülemäärane internetikasutus võib olla ühelt poolt toimetulekustrateegia, saamaks üle negatiivsetest emotsioonidest, kuna just noortele ekspertkasutajatele pakub internet mitmesuguseid võimalusi meelelahutuseks ja tujutõstmiseks. Teiselt poolt võib see toimetulekumehhanism avaldada pikemas perspektiivis noore heaolule negatiivset mõju.Teenagers have become the most prominent users of the Internet as they effortlessly incorporate the medium into their everyday lives. Due to the newness of the medium, only partially settled norms surrounding usage, and intensity with which the online space was adopted by the youth, much attention has been paid to dwell upon whether the usage of the Internet by the young people brings along positive or negative outcomes. The concept of well-being is used in the thesis to simultaneously look both at the positive and negative aspects of Internet use and to ask how these phenomena are related to young people’s quality of life. The latter question is especially important as adolescence is the formative period in young people’s development. The thesis looked at online practices – blogging as a positive side, and excessive Internet use as a problematic one – and how and in what condition they increase or decrease the well-being of the young. The findings suggest that both media choice and usage, as well as the well-being of the young Internet users, are framed by larger contextual factors – age and gender of the user; social environment (e.g. family and peer influence) and societal (cultural level) conditions individuals live in; and the structural characteristics of the medium or its applications. Hence, the thesis suggests that it is the context which creates and defines the positivity and negativity of certain outcomes of Internet usage. For instance, adolescent bloggers primarily stay truthful to their offline selves in their blogs, and hence the practice could be seen as a mechanism for maintaining one’s identity and social contacts, but also as an opportunity to seek prestige and competence among the peer group. At the same time, revealing intimate details about one’s life in a blog can also lead to possible negative consequences. Excessive Internet use among the young is related to psychological distress and the time spent online but also to one’s digital skills and the activities one engages in online. Hence, on the one hand, excessive Internet use may be a coping strategy, especially for more expert young users of the medium, as it offers a wide range of opportunities for mood management and entertainment; on the other hand, it may have negative outcomes on one’s well-being in the long run

Do Employees Care About Their Relative Position? Behavioural Evidence Focusing on Performance.

Do employees care about their relative (economic) position among co-workers in an organization? And if so, does it raise or lower their performance? Behavioral evidence on these important questions is rare. This paper takes a novel approach to answering these questions, working with sports data from two different disciplines, basketball and soccer. These sports tournaments take place in a controlled environment defined by the rules of the game. We find considerable support that positional concerns and envy reduce individual performance. In contrast, there does not seem to be any tolerance for income disparity, based on the hope that such differences signal that better times are under way. Positive behavioral consequences are observed for those who are experiencing better times.Relative income, positional concerns, envy, social comparison, relative derivation, performance

Mom, Dad It’s Only a Game! Perceived Gambling and Gaming Behaviors among Adolescents and Young Adults: an Exploratory Study

Gambling and gaming are increasingly popular activities among adolescents. Although gambling is illegal in Portugal for youth under the age of 18 years, gambling opportunities are growing, mainly due to similarity between gambling and other technology-based games. Given the relationship between gambling and gaming activities, the paucity of research on gambling and gaming behaviors in Portugal, and the potential negative consequences in the lives of young people, the goal of this study was to explore and compare the perceptions of these two behaviors between Portuguese adolescents and young adults. Results from six focus groups (three with adolescents and three with young adults, comprising 37 participants aged between 13 and 26 years) indicated different perceptions for the two age groups. For adolescents, gaming was associated with addiction whereas for young adults it was perceived a tool for increasing personal and social skills. With regard to gambling, adolescents associated it with luck and financial rewards, whereas young adults perceived it as an activity with more risks than benefits. These results suggest developmental differences that have implications for intervention programs and future research

Why do gamers buy 'virtual assets'? An insight in to the psychology behind purchase behaviour

The present study investigated the phenomenon of buying 'virtual assets' for game avatars. Virtual Assets are items that are bought with real-world money for an avatar in-game. Weapons, items, pets, mounts and skin customisations are the most popular examples. Using a qualitative methodology - in this case Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) - six gamers that regularly bought in - game assets were interviewed. IPA was chosen because of its emphasis on lived experience, and each participant had subjective experiences of gaming and purchase behaviour. Of particular focus in this study were the superordinate themes of motivations for purchase behaviour, the resulting psychological impact on the gamer, the social benefits of gaming and virtual asset purchasing, emotional attachment, self-expression through the avatar, impulsivity versus thoughtfulness in purchase intention, and the impact of a transaction machinery on the 'game experience'. Motivations that were found to be of particular importance were item exclusivity, function, social appeal, and collectability. It was found that virtual items enable the gamer to express themselves, feel real satisfaction, and build lasting friendships. Essentially, virtual assets and gaming mostly had a very positive impact on the participant’s psychological wellbeing. Implications for gamers and games production companies are considered

Positive Media: An Introductory Exploration

Media has become an increasingly large part of our lives, and therefore plays a crucial role in our well-being. Positive psychology, the science of well-being, can be complemented through the new potentialities of media, which in many ways also seeks to improve the human experience. I create the context for a new dialogue about what positive media might be. By adopting a positive lens and discussing exemplars in different formats, this paper explores the ways media effectively incorporates elements of well-being. Through this positive approach, we gain an appreciation for what media does well. The paper also recommends ways that people can consume media in support of their well-being, and ways media creators can design content that optimizes human flourishing. Lastly, the paper encourages a dialogue between the important fields of positive psychology and media. With a partnership between these fields, it posits the opportunity for dramatically increasing global well-being