The Emergence of Positive Technology: Potential Applications - Giuseppe Riva's Keynote Valencia ISRII 2014

The Emergence of
Positive Technology:
Potential Applications
Prof. Giuseppe Riva, Ph.D.
Università Cattolica del Sacro
Cuore, Milan, Italy
www.giusepperiva.com

Keynote Speaker
VALENCIA, ISRII 2014
2
Giuseppe Riva, Ph.D.
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italyc
- Professor of General Psychology
- Director of the Applied Technology for Neuro-
Psychology Lab.
- European Editor of the scientific journal
“Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social
Networking”
- President of the International Association of
CyberPsychology, Training, and Rehabilitation –
iActor - http://iactor.ning.com/
Giuseppe Riva, Ph.D. WWW.GIUSEPPERIVA.COM
Professional Skills
Clinical Psychology
66%
Cognitive Psychology
83%
Technological Development
51%
Ergonomics and Usability
72%
WWW.GIUSEPPERIVA.COM
Open
Call
for
Papers
h/p://www.interac7vemediains7tute.com/cypsy20/
Impact
Factor:
2013:
2.41
–
1°
Quar7le
ISI

The open challenge for mental health
3
As underlined by yesterday’s keynote
(Pim Cuijpers) and by this recent
Nature paper, we need better ideas
and tools for mental health.
Our solution: Technology

The goal of this presentation
4
The good side
of technology
Positive
Technology
Positive Technology
In practice
Technology can help us to
change. How and Why
Positive Technology can
improve our personal
experience
Relevant applications of
Positive Technology

The good side of technology
Technology can help us to change: How and Why

Technology is evolving… But its use?
6
One computer for
many users
One computer for each
user
Many computers for each
user
Thousands computers
for each user
1960: Mainframe Era 1980: Personal Computer
Era
2000: Mobility Era 2020+: Ubiquity Era
Source: Abigail Sellen, Yvonne Rogers, Richard Harper, Tom Rodden: Reflecting human values in the
digital age. Commun. ACM 52(3): 58-66 (2009)

Technology is not making us better…
7
Privacy and Security
Ethics and Values
Multitasking
And
Technostress

Open Challenge:
Using technology to change people lives for better…
But what is change?

What is change?
9
Even if this question has
many possible answers in
general change occurs
through an intense focus
on a particular instance or
experience (Wolfe, 2002).
By exploring this experience
as thoroughly as possible,
the patient can relive all of
the significant elements
associated with it (i.e.,
conceptual, emotional,
m o t i v a t i o n a l , a n d
behavioral) and make them
available for reorganization.

! Within this general model we have many
specific methods in clinical psychology:
! the insight-based approach of
psychoanalysis,
! the schema-reorganization goals of
cognitive therapy,
! the functional analysis of behavioral
therapy,
! the interpersonal relationship focus of
interpersonal therapy,
! and the enhancement of experience
awareness in experiential therapies.
What are the differences between them?

What is change
11 According to Safran and Greenberg
(1991), behind the specific therapeutic
approach there are two different
models of change: bottom-up and top-down.
Bottom-up processing begins with the
focus on sensations and leads to
change at the behavioral and
conceptual level;
Top-down change usually involves
exploring and challenging tacit rules
and beliefs that guide the processing of
behavioral planning and leads
eventually to changes in sensation
processing.
Top Down
Bottom Up
Source: Safran, J.D. & Greenberg, L.S.(Eds.) (1991).
Emotion, psychotherapy and change. New York:
Guilford Press.

What is change
12
These two models of change are
focused on two different cognitive
systems (Kahneman, Nobel Prize
Lecture, 2002):
System 1 (Intuition): it generates
impressions of the attributes of objects
of perception and thought. These
impressions are not voluntary and
need not be verbally explicit.
System 2 (Reasoning): it generates
judgments, that are always explicit and
intentional, whether or not they are
overtly expressed.
System 2: Reasoning
System 1: Intuition
Top Down
Bottom Up

What is change
13
System 2: Reasoning
Rules/Beliefs
System 1: Intuition
Emotions/Simulation

Learning by doing: where Intuition and
reasoning meet
14
Learning by doing
The best way to learn how to do something is trying to do it and
reflecting on the outcome (metacognition)
Engage and Motivate in Active Exploration and
Learning
To make individuals active participants by creating situations that
challenge them to solve problems and apply new knowledge.
Apply Metacognition
To make individuals active participants by creating situations that
challenge them to solve problems and apply new knowledge.
To facilitate change we need to develop
experiences able to engage (intuition) and apply
metacognition to them (reasoning)

Positive Technology
Positive Technology can improve our personal experience

This question is at the heart
of the “positive technology”
approach, which is the
scientific and applied
approach to the use of
technology for improving the
quality of our personal
experience.
WHAT IS RIGHT ABOUT TECHNOLOGY?

What is Personal Experience
17
The starting point of positive technology
should be the concept of “personal
experience”. But what is Experience?
According to the Merriam Webster
Dictionary, it is both as
“a) the fact or state of having been
affected by or gained knowledge
through direct observation or
p a r t i c i p a t i o n ” ( p e r s o n a l
experience),
and “b) direct observation of or
participation in events as a basis of
k n o w l e d g e ” ( s u b j e c t i v e
experience) .
independently from the subjectivity of any individual, it is
possible to alter the features of our personal experience
from outside.

Technology can change personal experience
18
By Structuring it
using a goal, rules, and a
feedback system (reasoning)
• The goal provides
subjects with a sense of
purpose focusing
attention .
• The rules, push subjects
to see the experience in a
different way.
• The feedback system tells
individuals how close
they are to achieving the
goal
By Augmenting it
By Replacing it
to achieve multimodal and
mixed experiences
(intuition/reasoning)
• Technology allows
multisensory experiences
in which content and its
interaction are offered
through more than one
of the senses.
• It is possible to use
technology to overlay
virtual objects onto real
scenes
By replacing it with a
synthetic one (intuition)
• Using VR, it is possible to
simulate physical
presence in a synthetic
world that reacts to the
action of the subject as if
he/she was really there.
• It is even possible tp
provde illusion of
ownership over a virtual
arm or a virtual body

19
Using these strategies it is possible to modify three specific features
of our experience - affective quality, engagement/actualization and
connectedness - that serve to promote adaptive behaviors and
positive functioning

20
Hedonic
Technologies
AFFECTIVE QUALITY
technologies used to induce
positive and
pleasant experiences
Social/Interpersonal
Technologiesl
Eudaimonic
Technologies
FLOW/ACTUALIZATION
technologies used to support
individuals in
reaching engaging and self-actualizing
experiences
CONNECTDNESS
and improve social
integration and/or
connectedness

21
Hedonic
Technologies
AFFECTIVE QUALITY
technologies used to induce
positive and
pleasant experiences
Technologiesl
Eudaimonic
Technologies
FLOW/ACTUALIZATION
individuals in
reaching engaging and self-actualizing
experiences
CONNECTDNESS
and improve social
integration and/or
connectedness

The concepts of Positive
Technologies are rooted
in the research work of
Positive and Cognitive
Psychology

Positive Technology in practice
Relevant application of Positive Technology

Practical Applications of Positive Technologies
24
Hedonic
Technologies
AFFECTIVE QUALITY
Eudaimonic
Technologies
FLOW/ACTUALIZATION CONNECTDNESS
Technologiesl

25
Hedonic
Technologies
AFFECTIVE QUALITY
We add to CBT (reasoning) a
real-time stress monitoring
app (metacognition) and the
Positive Technology app (free
in the iOS App store) to induce
positive emotions (intuition).

26
We used group reminiscence
(reasoning and metacognition)
to help Elderly subjects to
share their memories
(intuition) with young
generations
Eudaimonic
Technologies
FLOW/ACTUALIZATION

27
We used face-to-face meetings
and a groupware tool
(reasoning, intuition and
metacognition) to help
students to design an e-health
App. Who experienced flow
produced more creative ideas.
Technologiesl
CONNECTDNESS

Key Ideas to take home…
29
1) Personal Change requires both
Intuition and Reasoning. Learning
by Doing and Metacognition
connect/active both of them.
2) Positive Technology use
technology to improve personal
experience by structuring,
augmenting and replacing it.
3) Using these strategies it is possible
to modify three specific features of
our experience - affective quality,
engagement/actualization and
connectedness - that serve to
promote positive functioning
4) Accoring to the features of our
experience targeted by the
technology we have Hedonic,
Eudaimo n i c and S o c i a l /
Interpersonal technologies.

Four Free Books for you…
30
Volutaren plus isa
Interacting with Presence
HCI and the Sense of Presence in
Computer-mediated Environments
http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/449569
Thank you for your attention
Enabling Positive Change
Flow and Complexity in Daily Experience
(to be published November 2014)
http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/449663
Active Ageing and Healthy Living: A Human
Centered Approach in Research and
Innovation as Source of Quality of Life
http://www.activeaging.it/
Advanced Technologies in Rehabilitation
Empowering Cognitive, Physical, Social and
Communicative Skills
http://www.emergingcommunication.com/
volume11.html

The Emergence of Positive Technology: Potential Applications - Giuseppe Riva's Keynote Valencia ISRII 2014

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