Participant 1’s logged of emotions
Out put of emotions using Siri’s Voice
Kristin’s Interview<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/110731218″>IMG_3194</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user23643000″>Crystal tong</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
Lastly, for references, last semester, I did a group project on mood input. Here is the user experience video of the app Mood Mapper where users were asked to input their mood through out the day using a timer. The interface was prototyped using Flinto.
How Patients Respond to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Treatment Homework
Stress is a common experience for all walks of life. Some people experience more stress than others, while everyone copes with stress in their own unique way. My thesis research will investigate how technology can serve as an intervention system to help people cope with stress more effectively. This research will investigate users who suffer from high levels of stress and are seeking treatment to alleviate their symptoms. This tool will serve as an automated system in which biosensors will collect real-time data of the user, calculate stress levels, and encourage the user to engage in various stress-reducing techniques. Thus, my research will begin with interviewing psychology graduate students (secondary stakeholders) who have experience with treating anxiety disorders and will provide qualitative data that will assist my design concepts.
Research of cognitive behavioral therapy has provided empirical support for its efficacy of changing behavior through in-session therapy and assigned homework for patients to complete outside of therapy. By better understanding the treatment experiences of these practitioners, I hope to develop a device that will create the best user experience to allow users to maintain a healthier level of stress.
There have been some research findings that have used technology as a mediator between cognitive behavioral therapy and patient. Research in emotional eating in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) suggests that in order to modify eating behaviors, one must identify what triggers emotional eating and what makes the person become aware of their maladaptive behavior (Carrol, 2013, p. 1). The way CBT approaches this is by having the person keep daily food and mood logs to encourage “real-time self-monitoring”. This model of changing behavior hopes to bring the automatic thoughtless actions into consciousness to motivate engagement (Carrol, 2013, p. 2). In Food and Mood: Just-in-Time Support for Emotional Eating, participants were asked to use a mobile application EmotiTree, to log their mood every hour as well as their eating patterns. In addition, they investigated on an intervention technique that asked users to do breathing exercises whenever they would input stress or anxiety. Results showed that 87.5% people became more aware of their eating habits but only 37.5% reported that their eating behaviors changed (Carrol, 2013, p. 3).
Designing for Positive Health Affect (Toscos, 2013, p154) is a project that uses three different theoretical frameworks that help shape design recommendations to help counter the negative emotions associated to glucometer devices for adolescents. Current glucose measuring devices generate negative emotions associated with the device. In order to understand why, this paper conducted two interviews to reveal different needs of children dealing with Type I Diabetes and how it affects the parent-child relationship. These interviews were designed to gain a better understanding of concerns that span across different developmental stages regarding the use of glucometers and to seek ways of lowering emotional barriers of using the device. In the interviews between parent and child, the researchers realized that these devices lacked a communication platform to help facilitate conversation between the two about the child’s glucose levels.
My research will investigate patients’ behavior involving their use of stress-reducing techniques (e.g., methods of reminding themselves). Thus, my inquiry will begin with interviewing 6 psychologists to ask about the behaviors of their patients and what types of disorders involve high stress, and what kinds of interventions are used. My questions will sought to answer specifically why the specific interventions are used, when they are implemented, how effective they found them to be, and how often they are used, and what kinds of customized changes are needed to be made.
I chose to inquire within this community because they are more accessible to recruit than patients who suffer from anxiety disorders. The process to recruit these users for interviews would require me as a researcher to approach counseling centers, and ask for permission to recruit their patients. In addition, it would also require participants to expose their mental illness, which I may be perceived as an invasive interviewer even if I were to offer compensation for their time and information.
Through meeting these psychologists who have experience with cognitive behavioral therapy, I would like to conduct in-depth interviews on the phone and in-person at The New School Counseling Center and Rutgers faculty and Graduate students at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology.
Carroll, E., Czerwinski, M., Roseway, A., Kapoor, A., Johns, P., Rowan, K., Schraefel, M.C (2013). Food and Mood: An Exploration in Emotional Eating Intervention.
Toscos, T., Connelly, K., Rogers, Y. (2013). Designing for Positive Health Affect. International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare and Workshops.
Download Word Document here: MadisonsInterview
This interview was conducted to explore current health tracking device users and their needs, wants, and behavior.
Biography of subject
Madison is a 28 year old female who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her career is in the apothecary and commercial business. Her day job often entails her managing the editorial, logistical process, and clients in an apothecary company. At night she is usually casted as an extra in commercials at least once a week. Her body image and health is extremely important to her, so she is pretty avid at exercising and eating a balance diet. She just recently purchased a Fitbit three months ago.
Scripted questions and Transcript
When do you put on your Fitbit?
I wear it every minute of the day
Do you use the silent alarm feature? Do you look at your Fitbit in the morning? If so when? What data are you looking at?
I use it to track my sleep if I remember. It’s interesting to see how often you are restless and whether you woke up. I like using it in the shower.
Do you share your data or achievements with your social circles?
Sharing weirds me out
Do you use the water and calorie intake?
What do you do for physical activity? How has it changed your physical activity been?
Going to the gym is about the same. I sometimes work out longer because of the fitbit. I also opt for stairs and walking more everywhere I go because of it
2:20 secs: I take more steps, I sometimes walk in circles and take the stairs while watching my steps change.
When I have to charge, it doesn’t calculate your pulse. Which it would give more accurate view of your heart rate and calories you’re really burning. It’s basically now using an educated estimate.
Style is also a problem. If they came out with more options that are not as expensive. I don’t like to take it off if I am going to a meeting.
Do you set goals for yourself? If so what are they?
I have goals for steps, distance, minutes of being active throughout the day. Calorie intake and balance. How many you burn how many you consumed. Water, making sure I’m drinking the water throughout the day. It’s very satisfying to fulfill it by seeing the colors change from orange to green. It also sends you messages through phone alerts or emails. It’s one of those things if you are goal-oriented person, it’s really satisfying.
Which goals are you more obsessed about?
I am bummed about certain goals , others are whatever.
How often do you go to the gym?
I started running more. I use to not run at all.
How often do you check your Fitbit?
4-5 times an hour if I am active. If I am sedentary, I wouldn’t check it as frequently.
If you were to prioritize reasons why you track your health could you tell me what they are?
- reach fitness goals short term- gain weight
- long term health to quantified self. quantified selfers.
- deeper level to control.
Madison was the perfect candidate to talk to as an avid health tracker user. She is addicted to using this device because she is goal-oriented. She is so much so goal-oriented that she described one of her frequent behaviors which was to check whether her goals have all turned green (signified reaching goal). The Fitbit also supports this behavior and gives her contingent feedback when she would accomplish a goal, and it also delivers micro feedback when she would take each step.
Her short term goals behind using the Fitbit really says that she is concerned about the immediacy of improvements of herself, and that she is self-conscious about her body image. She is also fascinated by the data the device collects and the feedback she receives that she wouldn’t otherwise receive if she didn’t wear the Fitbit, which leads me to believe that if there was another feature added to the device she would use it. For example heart rate, perspiration, and stress.
The secondary reason why she uses the Fitbit is to benefit her long term health. I think that she would be interested in monitoring her mental health because the mental and physical performance of one’s health attributes to each other.
I think users like Madison who enjoys quantifying herself would consider quantifying her own emotions if she had the opportunity to. Thus, the next step in research would be to have her log her emotions and location throughout the day and compare and contrast her Fitbit data to see if there are any relationships between her environment and her emotions and her physical activiy.