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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Positive Technologies for Improving Health and Well-Being

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description

In the last 20 years there have been two important developments of great importance to the field of psychological treatments. On the one hand, this meant the movement of positive psychology, and on the other, the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve the daily clinical practice. In this paper a new field of study that attempts to strengthen ties and build bridges between them is introduced: Positive Technologies. This perspective seeks to promote the use of technology to foster personal growth and the development of human virtues and strengths, thus contributing to social and cultural development. In this chapter, we present four positive technologies: (1) ‘EMMA’s World’, a virtual reality system developed for the treatment of stress-related disorders. It can provide to the user meaningful virtual environments capable of activating and enhancing the emotional processing of the event experienced, and fostering a more positive projection toward the future. As a positive technology, it can be classified at the eudaimonic level; (2) ‘EARTH of Well-Being’, a virtual reality application designed to induce positive emotions in a controlled way and reinforce psychological resources, covering the hedonic and eudaimonic levels; (3) ‘Smiling is Fun’, a positive technology intervention designed to generate coping resources and foster psychological well-being at both at the hedonic and eudaimonic levels; and (4) ‘BUTLER’, which aims to contribute to improve the quality of life of the elderly. It includes the most popular Internet services integrated into a single platform, adapting its characteristics to the needs of the elderly population. It is designed to cover the three levels of positive technologies: hedonic, eudaimonic, and social interaction. All these applications are presented and the different possibilities and advantages that this perspective may involve are analysed.