Disentangling Technostress in Social Streaming Services: The Impact of Perceived Eustress and Distress on User Participation and Engagement

Technostress resulting from the use of social media and social streaming services is usually associated with negative consequences, such as lower user participation and engagement. This paper, however, finds evidence that the perception of stress in association with the use of social streaming services also positively impacts user participation and engagement by disentangling the concept of stress into eustress and distress. Data from 147 social streaming services users were collected and analyzed with structural equation modeling. The results confirm that perceived eustress positively affects user participation and engagement, while perceived distress decreases user participation and engagement. Separating the concept of user participation and engagement into benign and malicious user participation and engagement reveals that eustress is positively related to benign user participation and engagement, whereas perceived distress is positively associated with malicious user participation and engagement

On the Role of Envy in the Technostress Process in the Context of Social Media Use

Envy and stress are two terms, which are usually associated with the “dark side of technology”. However, both concepts also contain a “bright” side, benign envy and eustress, which are associated with an individual’s well-being. This work uncovers the relationship between envy and technostress in the context of social media use. The study is based on a sequential mixed-methods research design including qualitative interviews and a subsequent quantitative online survey. The results reveal that while benign envy is associated with the appraisal of social media as challenge stressors, malicious envy is related to the appraisal of social media as hindrance stressors. Challenge stressors lead to challenge coping responses inducing perceived eustress. Hindrance stressors result in hindrance coping responses inducing distress. Therefore, envy is found to be a significant determinant and cause for whether eustress or distress is perceived when using social media

The Adolescent Distress-Eustress Scale: Designing, Evaluating, and Utilising a Holistic Measure of Adolescent Stress

Adolescence is characterised by numerous physical, environmental, and psychological transformations. In light of these changes, adolescence is considered to be a crucially stressful period of the lifespan. Clinically, stress has significant impacts on young peoples’ physical and mental health, with these early experiences forming the foundation of adult functioning. Adolescence therefore represents a period of both risk and opportunity for clinical psychology. While stress is often assumed to be inherently maladaptive, current psychological theory outlines that the construct can be delineated into both positive and negative aspects, known as eustress and distress. While research on eustress has grown with the popularisation of Positive Psychology, the concept has received markedly less empirical interest. Correspondingly, the overwhelming majority of measures focus exclusively on distress, discounting the possible positive impacts of stress and perpetuating the lack of research on eustress. As conclusions made on the basis of psychological measurement are only as valid and reliable as the scales used, it is vital that stress measures align with holistic theoretical understandings. However, no existing measure adequately captures both distress and eustress in adolescents. The overarching aim of the current research was to develop a novel measure of the adolescent stress response, which holistically captures both the negative and positive aspects of the construct. This thesis details the series of sequential investigations to design, evaluate, and utilise the Adolescent Distress-Eustress Scale (ADES). To develop the ADES, distress and eustress were first clearly defined based on a review of the prominent stress theories in the psychological literature. A qualitative approach was taken to operationalise these unobservable constructs, with the thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews revealing several phenomena that could act as salient indicators of the adolescent stress response. The range of distinctive perspectives demonstrated in this study emphasises the need for research to reflect the unique experiences of adolescents. These findings were next used to generate developmentally-specific scale items, which were then refined to form a cohesive questionnaire through a systematic pre-testing process. Optimising and evaluating the measure in a large, socio-educationally diverse sample (N = 981) suggested that the finalised ADES is a brief, psychometrically-sound scale. These results were subsequently replicated in additional adolescent samples. Finally, the newly-developed scale was used to investigate the role of stress in adolescent wellbeing. One thousand and eighty-one adolescents completed the ADES alongside measures of wellbeing and other relevant psychological and behavioural variables. Conditional process analysis indicated distress had no direct influence on wellbeing, with the observed negative relationship being fully mediated. Contrastingly, eustress was both directly related to increased wellbeing and exerted an indirect effect through relationships with mediating variables. These results suggest stress may be positively leveraged for clinical intervention. By highlighting the positive aspects of stress, this thesis provides a more balanced approach to research and clinical practice, counteracting the traditional negative focus. As the first adolescent measure to capture both distress and eustress, the ADES serves to bridge the gap between theory and measurement. Overall, results advance theoretical knowledge, insight, and understanding and have clear clinical applications.Thesis (Conbined PhD & MPsych) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 201

Developing an IT tool for improving workforce motivation and capabilities: An empirical case study with reference to Qatar

Human, Organisation and Technology (HOT) are all important components of IS. However, organisations look to technology as the main tool of change that can help them achieve their goals. This change usually concerns the needs of the organisation, and not the needs of its human resources, despite it being the latter that is the principal actor that any organisation depends upon to achieve its goals. The aim of this research is to develop an IT tool that itself can satisfy the workforce humanistic needs. In order to develop this IT tool, a theoretical investigation and practical experimentations were conducted in a series of case studies involving government organisations in Qatar. Based on the theoretical investigation, an approach was proposed based on Socio-Technical Theory (STT), supported by learning from the ETHICS application of STT concepts and Client-Led Information systems Creation (CLIC) application of Soft System Methodology (SSM) principles. This approach was used to guide the development of the IT tool which was then used in actual organisational work environments to assess its impact on the Qatari workforce's motivation and capabilities. Empirical results from this research show that an IT itself cannot be used to improve workforce motivation and capabilities in the case of Qatar. However, IT can do this by supporting a work environment enabled by necessary managerial practises and work environment requirements. Based on the proposed approach, this requires firstly, an understanding of the needs of the social subsystem of the organisation to improve workforce motivation and capability; then these needs should be developed into functions that are enabled by the work environment and supported by the IT tool. Lastly, the new IT tool needs to be integrated into the existing technical subsystem of the organisation. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. They contribute to a better understanding of the role of IT in improving the workforce's motivation and capabilities. They extend the application of STT principles in the area of developing human-focused IS by finding an alternative to the participatory approach via learning from SSM principles. They also provide specific understanding of how to develop an IT tool as well as what the work environment needs to provide to enable the application of the IT tool, to improve workforce motivation and capabilities. This PhD research also has social implications for the way IT is utilised in organisations. It can affect areas of IS utilisation and workforce well-being, as well as the role of leadership in maximising the value of IS from a human-focused perspective and the area of utilising IT in a virtual team to consider their humanistic needs