Improving Mental Wellbeing in Organizations with Targeted Psychosocial Interventions

Background: Mental wellbeing of employees is crucial for successful organizations. Psychosocial interventions that target highly contagious individuals (i.e., individuals that can ‘transmit’ their wellbeing to others) could efficiently improve overall wellbeing in the workplace. Objectives: Using the magnitudes of effects observed in existing studies on psychosocial interventions and the contagion of mental wellbeing, we aimed to examine how the wellbeing of a group (based on WHO-5 Well-Being Index scores) changes if interventions are provided to highly contagious people instead of randomly selected individuals. Methods/Approach: Based on the data on mental wellbeing of 414 nursing home employees, we created a social network that includes individual levels of wellbeing and the strength of the connection between people. Simulation-based influence-maximization was used on the network and interventions were interventions were provided to either contagious or randomly selected individuals. Results: Overall, mental wellbeing of the group increased slightly more when individuals had received a simulated psychosocial intervention in order of contagiousness compared to the cases in which interventions were provided to randomly selected individuals. Conclusions: Selectively targeting highly contagious individuals could be an efficient approach to improving wellbeing in organizations, especially in social contexts, where the contagion of mental wellbeing is likelier

PERCEPTION AND EVALUATION OF (MODIFIED) WOOD BY OLDER ADULTS FROM SLOVENIA AND NORWAY

Background. Many building users prefer wood over other building materials, but it is unclear how modified wood is perceived compared to the unmodified wood. Additionally, it is unclear which material properties play a role in the general preference for wood, how tactile and tactile-visual perceptions of materials affect user preference for wood, and whether human preference for wood is consistent across countries and cultures with different wood use practices. Method. 100 older adults from Slovenia and Norway rated and ranked wooden materials (i.e., handrails) made of either unmodified or modified wood and a stainless-steel control sample. The materials were rated on a semantic differential scale (capturing sensory and affective attributes) by each participant twice: first while only touching the materials and then while simultaneously touching and seeing the materials. Finally, each participant ranked the handrails in order of preference. Results. Wooden handrails were generally more preferred than the steel sample. Preference ratings and rankings of modified wood were comparable to those of unmodified wood. Results were relatively consistent across both countries. Materials rated as liked were perceived as somewhat less cold, less damp, more usual, less artificial, more expensive, and less unpleasant. The ratings were fairly consistent between the tactile and tactile-visual task. Conclusions. In at least some indoor applications, certain types of modified wood could be used in place of unmodified wood, while meeting human aesthetical preferences. Certain visual and tactile properties can predict material preference and could be considered in the material design phase. Tactile experience is important in overall material perception and should not be overlooked. These findings seem to be stable across countries with different wood use practices

Effect of desk materials on affective states and cognitive performance

Abstract Visual and tactile properties of materials can influence human emotional and cognitive functioning. Existing studies indicate that exposure to wood may lead to more favourable outcomes than contact with other common materials, but evidence is limited. We measured affective states and cognitive performance in 16 participants before and after each spent 15 min at 10 desks with differing top surfaces. Desk surfaces were made of untreated, oiled, or lacquered spruce or oak solid wood, laminated or oak-veneered particleboard, glass, and mineral-filled thermoplastic composite. The results indicate that cognitive performance and affective states of participants did not differ between the desk surfaces. It appears that exposure to a relatively small wooden surface does not significantly influence affective and cognitive outcomes. Incorporating larger amounts of wood coverage and a more demanding cognitive task would probably increase the chances of capturing the potential effects of wood exposure on human affective states and cognitive performance