Technology and Psychology

INESC TEC Science Bits – Episode 9

PODCAST INESC TEC Science Bits

Guest speakers:

Duarte Dias, Centre for Biomedical Engineering Research (C-BER)

Susana Rodrigues, Centre for Biomedical Engineering Research (C-BER)

Keywords: technology | psychology | teleworking | stress | well-being

Teleworking means remote work, working from home or activities carried out outside the company, making use of IT. The demanding situation that has been affecting Portugal since March 2020 inevitably brings new challenges, since the boundaries between professional and personal life are blurred, which could lead to a set of psychological issues for individuals.

The need to tackle stress and support workers concerning their motivation becomes even more essential, and technology can contribute to address this new reality, even more if combined with psychology.

Stress management in demanding situations

One of the main lines of research at the Centre for Biomedical Engineering Research (C-BER) is called Quantified Occupational Health; the main objective is to use platforms and wearable devices that allow people to accurately monitor occupational health, helping them understand, in a clearer and more quantified way, processes such as work-related stress and exhaustion. This line of research started with the VR2Market project, and expanded its scope thanks to other projects like NanoSTIMA and PERFECT.

Concerning these projects, the main outcome was the development of a quantified occupational health technological system – which, through a wearable device (a patch that can be attached to the skin), collects physiological data from the individual, and sends it to a mobile application. Then, this app aggregates and stores said data on a central server, also developed at INESC TEC. This server includes a panel to view and process all data, in order to calculate and quantify health indicators related to stress.

One of the prototypes developed ended up in a new and patented methodology for obtaining the ECG pattern, developed within the scope of the WeSENSS project. This technology consists of a system that monitors vital signs through a physiological sensor attached to the skin. This way, it is possible to adapt the system, so it can monitor people in teleworking; for instance, it can warn them about a highly stressful situation or exhaustion, which people may not notice immediately.

Self-monitoring

The truth is that teleworking is causing additional stress for many workers, for a variety of reasons. In this sense, technology relying on psychology can provide tools to help these people.

In times of pandemic, it is crucial to invest in ourselves, to pay attention to the signs, so that we can quickly act when something is not right. However, this lack of awareness can make this task even more difficult, also hindering our search for appropriate treatment.

This is why using wearable health devices is important; gadgets like smartwatches, Fitbits and others are increasingly accessible and easy to use. These wearables may not be entirely reliable for clinical purposes, but they are accurate enough to give users an idea of their health status, and help them monitor it.

Technology and mental health

A major challenge in the field of psychology is the correct interpretation of subjective data collected via surveys and self-reports, since this information is often influenced by memory-related distortions and the person’s emotions at a given moment. For example, and concerning stress, technology – namely the use of wearable health devices – can provide reliable and real-time quantitative and objective information about a person’s stress levels.

In addition, the use of mobile applications can be useful to share information with professionals, whose role is to provide remote and real-time support; a type of “virtual coach” that provides users with simple relaxation and stress relief techniques, based on collected data. These may include mindfulness techniques. In complicated times like these, the main objective is to empower individuals with tools that allow them to deal with stress independently, and subsequently improve their well-being.