Proceedings of the Positive Technology International Conference 2023 Positive Technology: Possible Synergies between Emerging Technologies and Positive Psychology (PT 2023)

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Positive Technology in Light of the Bitter-Sweet Ambivalence of Change

Authors
Sarah Diefenbach1, *
1Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
*Corresponding author. Email: sarah.diefenbach@psy.lmu.de
Corresponding Author
Sarah Diefenbach
Available Online 19 February 2024.
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-378-8_3How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Positive Technology; theoretical foundations; behavior change; bitter and sweet components; design strategies
Abstract

Positive technology combines approaches from positive psychology with the opportunities of interactive technology. Thereby, positive technology may support people in reaching personal goals, such as being more sporty, establishing mindfulness, or improving their nutrition. Regarding the conception of such technologies for positive behavior change, there are several reasons why positive psychology and technology are a particular promising connection. This ranges from the underlying humanistic image of humanity, to the easy technical operationalization of related exercises, up to the integration of practices into daily routines. However, a risk of positive psychology inspired approaches is that the inherent focus on the positive disregards the actual challenges that humans will be confronted with. In the worst case, solely positive focused interventions may backfire and eventually prevent change. For being effective, the design of positive technologies must consider human change in all its facets, including “bitter” and “sweet” components of change. This chapter presents key assumptions about the suggested change dynamics and possible strategies for positive change along the bitter-sweet continuum of change and discusses findings from first empirical explorations.

Copyright
© 2024 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the Positive Technology International Conference 2023 Positive Technology: Possible Synergies between Emerging Technologies and Positive Psychology (PT 2023)
Series
Atlantis Highlights in Social Sciences, Education and Humanities
Publication Date
19 February 2024
ISBN
10.2991/978-94-6463-378-8_3
ISSN
2667-128X
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-378-8_3How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2024 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Sarah Diefenbach
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/02/19
TI  - Positive Technology in Light of the Bitter-Sweet Ambivalence of Change
BT  - Proceedings of the Positive Technology International Conference 2023 Positive Technology: Possible Synergies between Emerging Technologies and Positive Psychology (PT 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 31
EP  - 45
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-378-8_3
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-378-8_3
ID  - Diefenbach2024
ER  -