Preferences for coaching strategies in a personalized virtual coach for emotional eaters 127 5 RQ2: What are the preferences for a specific coaching strategy with regards to typical problem situations for emotional eating? The objective of this study was to gain more knowledge about recognition of the given problem situations so that the virtual coach would be enabled to deliver the right coaching based on this information. In the problem situation ‘experiencing cravings’, the women chose Validation and Dialectical over Focus-on-Change as the most appropriate coaching for them personally and as generally applicable coaching strategies. On the same questions regarding the problem situation ‘after giving in to cravings’, they preferred Focus-on-Change and Dialectical over Validation. The coaching strategy of Validation seems to align with ‘experiencing cravings’ but not as much for ‘after giving in to cravings’. A possible explanation for the fact that Validation may cause resentment in a person who just gave in to cravings is that she is ashamed of her behaviour (giving in to cravings) and does not want her feelings and behaviour to be 'justified' or even given a positive annotation. Validation is valued in ‘experiencing cravings’ but an equally large group preferred Dialectical. Validation is appreciated, but in combination with practical advice it has added value, because it could take the user further in her process of enduring cravings [40]. The Focus-on-change strategy seems to have possible interfaces with ‘after giving in to cravings’ but not as much for ‘experiencing cravings’. A woman who just gave in to cravings needs practical advice. When she is still experiencing those cravings, she should be stopped fromgiving in to them, with the use of an instantaneous intervention. Perhaps the given advice was not the kind she was hoping for at that moment. She had already decided to leave the cookies in the cookie jar and had picked up her phone to contact the virtual coach. She didn't need another confirmation from the coach. An advice might have been better, such as: “Anita, put on your coat and go out for a walk”. That could have helped her to temper the stress she was experiencing. Dialectical feedback seemed appealing for women who were experiencing cravings. For those who already gave in to cravings it was preferred to some extent because they were not susceptible for the validating component of this coaching variety. Apparently they were only interested in practical tips with information on how to get her life back on track or how to prevent this from happening in the future.
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