{"id":1339,"date":"2022-03-14T04:17:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T03:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/?p=1339"},"modified":"2022-03-14T04:25:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T03:25:49","slug":"phd-thesis-defense-in-the-quest-for-the-motivation-app-designing-effective-behavior-change-apps-through-the-lens-of-the-self-determination-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/2022\/03\/phd-thesis-defense-in-the-quest-for-the-motivation-app-designing-effective-behavior-change-apps-through-the-lens-of-the-self-determination-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"PhD Thesis Defense: In the Quest for the Motivation App: Designing Effective Behavior Change Apps Through the Lens of the Self-Determination Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On January 27th Gabriela publicly defended her Ph.D. Thesis, becoming the first Pet Lab member to obtain a doctorate degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The jury was formed by:<br><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/hecimpact\/people\/rafael-lalive\/\">Prof. Rafael Lalive<\/a>, pr\u00e9sident<br><a href=\"https:\/\/people.unil.ch\/kevinhuguenin\/\">Prof. K\u00e9vin Huguenin<\/a>, expert interne<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dal.ca\/faculty\/computerscience\/faculty-staff\/rita-orji.html\">Prof. Rita Orji<\/a>, experte externe<br><a href=\"https:\/\/research.tue.nl\/en\/persons\/max-v-birk\">Prof. Max Birk<\/a>, expert externe<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check Gabriela&#8217;s Thesis Denfese video presentation <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/mO609K3PaIA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/mO609K3PaIA\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"545\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.07.32-1024x545.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.07.32-1024x545.png 1024w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.07.32-300x160.png 300w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.07.32-768x409.png 768w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.07.32-1536x818.png 1536w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.07.32.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>You can download her thesis <a href=\"https:\/\/serval.unil.ch\/resource\/serval:BIB_8244DB29B6DA.P001\/REF\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/serval.unil.ch\/resource\/serval:BIB_8244DB29B6DA.P001\/REF\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.09.24-744x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1341\" width=\"282\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.09.24-744x1024.png 744w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.09.24-218x300.png 218w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.09.24-768x1057.png 768w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.09.24-1116x1536.png 1116w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-13-at-21.09.24.png 1286w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 282px) 100vw, 282px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Not much time?  No problem, here is the Thesis abstract:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&#8220;Mobile apps are used to support behavior change goals (e.g., stopping a lousy habit, increasing the physical activity frequency, or learning a new skill). Because these apps are pervasive, they are great tools to reach and help people in their self-improvement path towards better habits and well-being. However, users of these apps fail to reach their objectives because they lack the motivation to attain their goals. App creators might help to support motivation by integrating human motivation theories into their designs. Still, not many apps are theory- grounded. To address this issue, we organized our research around a comprehensive human motivation theory: The Self-Determination Theory (SDT). We explored three research streams: (1) developing an artifact that maps market app features to support the SDT Basic Psychological Needs (BPNs); (2) creating an SDT inspired physical activity app that provided empirical evidence that its design supported the BPNs; (3) providing empirical evidence of an SDT inspired app design that contributes to increasing the physical activity and motivation of individuals. The results of our studies show that the SDT can inform the design of behavior change app features. Moreover, these SDT inspired features can be used to create a physical activity app that improves individuals\u2019 intrinsic motivation and physical activity level. This thesis results have practical implications for app designers, policymakers, and health practitioners whose interest lies in creating theory-informed and effective behavior change apps.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 27th Gabriela publicly defended her Ph.D. Thesis, becoming the first Pet Lab member to obtain a doctorate degree. The jury was formed by:Prof. Rafael Lalive, pr\u00e9sidentProf. K\u00e9vin Huguenin, &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001701,"featured_media":1344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/persuasivelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}