Design of Social-Psychological Interventions to Help People Change: Research through Design (Preprint)

Abstract

Wise interventions are brief, non-clinical strategies that help people overcome social and personal problems. They may be applied across a range of areas where unproductive interpretations of a situation exist that undermine peoples functioning. The interventions involve a soft form of persuasion by offering alternative interpretations attributions which are more productive and thus may evoke an individual’s own capacity for change. Despite promising results in experimental research, these interventions are primarily research instruments, and unlike “real-world” artefacts, there is a lack in emphasis in engagement and interaction, meaning users will not want to engage with them.

The aims of this study was to explore how wise interventions might be embedded in everyday settings leading to natural interaction with the wise intervention.

This study explores a Research through Design (RtD) approach to the design of wise interventions, that is a designerley exploration using past experimental wise interventions studies (primarily values affirmation and self-affirmation interventions) as “design material”.

Emerging from this study was a “Mental Vitamin Dose”, an experience installation where students might engage with psychological content through interacting with plants. The concept included a tree of values where touching the plants triggered audio- and screen-based interaction. Lessons learned in the form of reflection on action resulted in a proposed framework for further designing of wise interventions into different real-world contexts.

The Research through design approach allows for following a “design-intuition” based on experimentation through trial and error and working from opportunities arising from exploring different materials and objects. Using wise interventions as design material in such a process might enable overcoming the implementation-gap between experimental research and practice-based applications. Wise interventions may also offer a valuable contribution to the emerging field of designing for behavioural change.