EARTH of Well-Being System: A pilot study of an Information and Communication Technology-based positive psychology intervention

The positive technology field combines the objectives of positive psychology with enhancements from information and communication technologies. Following this approach, our team developed the ‘EARTH of Well-Being,’ a system designed to induce positive emotions and reinforce psychological resources through a self-guided positive psychology internet intervention. This paper describes the EARTH system and presents the results of a pilot study that assesses users’ acceptance and perceived usefulness of the system and provides preliminary evidence of its efficacy in providing users with positive experiences. Thirty-eight volunteers used the application in six sessions distributed over two weeks. They reported high levels of acceptability and perceived usefulness. Moreover, participants reported increased positive mood after each session. Overall, results support the future use and investigation of this system as a positive psychology intervention, and suggest that it could be useful for increasing positive mood

Virtual reality therapy takes greenspace to older nursing home residents : a pilot study

Older nursing home (NH) residents receiving antidepressant, anxiolytic, or sedative-hypnotic medications for depression or anxiety are at increased risk of falling, sustaining injury, social isolation, and dying. Virtual reality (VR) therapy may provide a safe alternative or adjunct to the traditional pharmacological approach for managing depressive and anxiety symptoms, but the use of VR technology has not been studied in the NH setting. Preliminary work for this study indicated that a fully immersive VR intervention was feasible in a similar population and identified barriers that might hinder success in a subsequent trial. Two main barriers identified were usability of the head-mounted display system and content within the VR application. Modifications were made to the intervention with the intent of reducing or eliminating these problems. For this study, a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design was used to pilot test ViRT-Ta-GO: Virtual Reality Therapy Takes Greenspace to Older NH residents on depressive and anxiety symptoms. Findings demonstrate the usefulness of the intervention within the NH population, suggesting that it will be advantageous to evaluate the application of ViRT-Ta-GO through controlled clinical trials.Includes bibliographical references

Mood Worlds: A Virtual Environment for Autonomous Emotional Expression

Immersive interactive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) have the potential to foster well-being. While VR applications have been successfully used to evoke positive emotions through the presetting of light, colour and scenery, the experiential potential of allowing users to independently create a virtual environment (VE) has not yet been sufficiently addressed. To that end, we explore how the autonomous design of a VE can affect emotional engagement and well-being. We present Mood Worlds - a VR application allowing users to visualise their emotions by self-creating a VE. In an exploratory evaluation (N=16), we found that Mood Worlds is an effective tool supporting emotional engagement. Additionally, we found that an autonomous creation process in VR increases positive emotions and well-being. Our work shows that VR can be an effective tool to visualise emotions, thereby increasing positive affect. We discuss opportunities and design requirements for VR as positive technology

Dynamically improving collective environments through mood induction procedures

In our daily living, the environment surrounding us in uences us as much or more than we in uence it. Whether it is a domestic, leisure or working environment, its conditions will certainly have short and long-term e ects on aspects such as stress, mood or fatigue, which will in turn in uence indicators such as productivity, quality of work, quality of life, personal/group performance or even health. In this paper a dynamic environment is proposed that, based on the behavioural analysis of its users, will adapt its conditions to improve particular indicators. This will result in better working environments, with an impact on the quality of the work produced.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028980 (PTDC/EEI-SII/1386/2012).ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness

Human experience in the natural and built environment : implications for research policy and practice

22nd IAPS conference. Edited book of abstracts. 427 pp. University of Strathclyde, Sheffield and West of Scotland Publication. ISBN: 978-0-94-764988-3

Virtual worlds as a tool to facilitate weight management for young people.

Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the UK, with around 20% of children aged 10-11 being overweight or obese. Lifestyle interventions can be effective, but there is limited evidence of their effectiveness in delivering sustained weight loss. The present research explored potential of web-based, 3-dimensional virtual worlds (VWs) for facilitation of weight-management, well-being and patient and public involvement (PPI) for young people. Attendees of a weight management camp took part in induction sessions for use of the VW of Second Life. All participants successfully learned how to interact with one another and navigate the virtual environment. Participant appraisals of Second Life were varied. Some found it complicated and difficult to use, and some found it fun and the majority stated that they would choose to use VWs again. There is considerable potential for use of VWs to promote weight management, and Second Life or a similar VW could be used to deliver this. Potential barriers include members of the target sample having limited access to computers with necessary system requirements for running VWs, and that some may find VW-based educational experiences unappealing or challenging to navigate. For some however, VWs may provide a useful mode for provision of education, PPI and support relating to weight management

Investigating Avatar Customization as a Motivational Design Strategy for Improving Engagement with Technology-Enabled Services for Health

Technology-enabled services for physical and mental health are a promising approach to improve healthcare globally. Unfortunately, the largest barrier for effective technology-based treatment is participants' gradually fading engagement with effective novel training applications, such as exercise apps or online mental health training programs. Engaging users through design presents an elegant solution to the problem; however, research on technology-enabled services is primarily focused on the efficacy of novel interventions and not on improving adherence through engaging interaction design. As a result, motivational design strategies to improve engagement---both in the moment of use and over time---are underutilized. Drawing from game-design, I investigate avatar customization as a game-based motivational design strategy in four studies. In Study 1, I examine the effect of avatar customization on experience and behaviour in an infinite runner game. In Study 2, I induce different levels of motivation to research the effects of financial rewards on self-reported motivation and performance in a gamified training task over 11 days. In Study 3, I apply avatar customization to investigate the effects of attrition in an intervention context using a breathing exercise over three weeks. In Study 4, I investigate the immediate effects of avatar customization on the efficacy of an anxiety reducing attentional retraining task. My results show that avatar customization increases motivation over time and in the moment of use, suggesting that avatar customization is a viable strategy to address the engagement barrier that thwarts the efficacy of technology-enabled services for health