Preferences for coaching strategies in a personalized virtual coach for emotional eaters 111 5 In this study, we will assume 3 coaching strategies, inspired by DBT, focussing on two proto-typical problem situations: 1 V alidation strategies suggest response from the coach in an empathic way, by hearing another person’s point of view and accepting them (and their emotions) without judging; 2 Focus-on-Change strategies present the receiver with a practical change-oriented focus on problem behaviour by providing practical advise; 3 Using Dialectical strategies the coach focusses on pairing of Validation and Focus-onChange. The key here is finding a balance between acceptance of intense feelings and emotions and the need for change by adapting feelings and emotions. To best meet the emotional eaters’ need for right-on-time coaching [55-56], we have choosen the two tipping points, the two proto-typical problem situations [22, 40], at which interventions might be most effective: a ‘experiencing cravings’, when experiencing negative emotions and distress, b ‘after giving in to cravings’, undergoing feelings of disappointment, anger, shame and disgust [21]. The two problem situations are depicted by personas. Personas are created by designers to act as “fictitious, specific and concrete representations of target users” [57-58] “Personas are not real people, but they are based on the behaviors and motivations of real people we have observed and represent them throughout the design process” [59, p75]. A persona acts as a prototype because it represents a group of users. It is constructed from characteristics of that target group based on data from the literature, and data from research among users (attributes related to emotional eating behaviour). A persona is rich in composition by placing it in a context and by providing it with a personal profile, background, and user needs [60-62]. In the literature, the need for, or importance of, validation of personas is mainly associated with User Centered Design – to support the design of applications, for creating user stories, for heuristic evaluations, and to spur creativity among developers [57, 63-68]. Little has been published about the validation of personas used for experimental or exploratory research. We chose to use personas because they may make the depiction of the proto-typical problem situations more insightful and accessible to the participants than presenting an abstract description, conducting interviews, or presenting mock-ups. It is very important that participants and future users of the personalized virtual coach recognize themselves in one or both problem situations, because these two situations
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