Improve Mood/Increase Feelings of Wellbeing

Abeyta, Routledge, and Kaslon’s work indicates how design may be used to counter loneliness, to some extent.  The team found that “Loneliness is difficult to overcome, in part because it is associated with negative social cognitions and social motivations. We argue that nostalgia, a positive emotional experience that involves reflecting on cherished memories, is a psychological resource that regulates these maladaptive intrapsychic tendencies associated with loneliness. . . .

Song and Gao investigated how wellbeing is influenced by telework; their findings will interest people developing and managing workplaces.  Specifically, Song and Gao probed “how subjective well-being varies among wage/salary workers between working at home and working in the workplace. . . . We find that compared to working in the workplace, bringing work home on weekdays is associated with less happiness, and telework on weekdays or weekends/holidays is associated with more stress. The effect of working at home on subjective well-being also varies by parental status and gender.

Researchers have determined that at-work email interruptions degrade emotional state; it is reasonable to extend their findings to other disruptions experienced.  Pavlidis, Mark, and Gutierrez-Osuna found that “constant interruptions can actually create sadness and fear and eventually, a tense working environment. . .  ‘Individuals who engaged in multitasking appeared significantly sadder than those who did not. Interestingly, sadness tended to mix with a touch of fear in the multitasking cohort,’ Pavlidis said. . . .

Clements and colleagues studied the implications of having aquariums present in a space, either live or on video. After a literature review they report that “Nineteen studies were included [in their analysis]. Two provided tentative evidence that keeping home aquaria is associated with relaxation. The remaining studies involved novel interactions with fish in home or public aquariums.