Chapter 6 154 The current study explored the experiences of individuals with emotional eating about the used online tailored exercises to gain a better understanding of how the exercises may have produced the effects found from the client/user perspective. Furthermore, the effects of the three online exercises tailored to the three specific difficulties in emotion regulation, on affect, and on overall emotion dysregulation were explored. The study hypothesized that each exercise would decrease specific difficulties in emotion regulation, due to the tailoring, and with that would increase positive affect, decrease negative affect, and decrease overall emotion dysregulation. The study also hypothesized that based on three varying emotion regulation difficulties measured by DERS, three distinct groups of individuals with emotional eating could be distinguished. Thus, to gain more knowledge on how to meet the needs of the emotional eater with the use of a personalized virtual coach, we formulated the following research questions. Main research question: To what extent and in which way do experiences of individuals with emotional eating about three online tailored exercises, contribute to a better understanding of the hypothesized changes in affect and emotion dysregulation? Research question 1: How do participants perceive the usefulness and feasibility of the three tailored exercises? Research question 2: what kind of suggestions for improvement do participants have experiencing the three tailored exercises? Research question 3: What is the effect of three online tailored exercises on positive affect, negative affect, and overall emotion dysregulation? Methods Design This pilot study used an embedded mixed-method design [48], to evaluate the effects of a two-week online quasi-experiment with three groups. Qualitative data was collected to gain a better understanding of the measured effects of the exercises. Simultaneously, quantitative data was collected to explore the effects of three tailored exercises on affect (negative and positive) and emotion dysregulation.
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