Participant Perceptions of a Robotic Coach Conducting Positive Psychology Exercises: A Qualitative Analysis

TL;DR

This study investigates how non-clinical participants perceive a Pepper-based robotic coach delivering Positive Psychology exercises in a controlled lab, using qualitative thematic analysis to derive design implications. A within-subjects design exposed 20 participants to three affective-adaptation levels (None $N$, Adaptation $A$, Personalised $P$) and post-interaction interviews to characterize perceptions of the robot and interaction, yielding insights into acceptance, engagement, and limitations. Key findings show that PP exercises effectively prompt reflection and planning for positive experiences, but participants desire more responsive utterances, better turn-taking, and clearer task explanations; adaptation elicited mixed reactions, with no clear winner among $N$, $A$, or $P$, suggesting benefits from longitudinal evaluation and reliability improvements. The results point to practical design directions for future robotic coaches, including improved natural language generation for follow-ups, keyword-aware acknowledgement, privacy-conscious data handling, and targeting contexts such as isolation or care settings where robotic coaching could be particularly impactful.

Abstract

This paper presents a qualitative analysis of participants' perceptions of a robotic coach conducting Positive Psychology exercises, providing insights for the future design of robotic coaches. Participants (n = 20) took part in a single-session (avg. 31 +- 10 minutes) Human-Robot Interaction study in a laboratory setting. We created the design of the robotic coach, and its affective adaptation, based on user-centred design research and collaboration with a professional coach. We transcribed post-study participant interviews and conducted a Thematic Analysis. We discuss the results of that analysis, presenting aspects participants found particularly helpful (e.g., the robot asked the correct questions and helped them think of new positive things in their life), and what should be improved (e.g., the robot's utterance content should be more responsive). We found that participants had no clear preference for affective adaptation or no affective adaptation, which may be due to both positive and negative user perceptions being heightened in the case of adaptation. Based on our qualitative analysis, we highlight insights for the future design of robotic coaches, and areas for future investigation (e.g., examining how participants with different personality traits, or participants experiencing isolation, could benefit from an interaction with a robotic coach).

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Participant and Pepper interacting with each other.
• Figure 2: Themes defined in the TA are presented in orange, while codes related to these themes are presented in blue (best viewed in colour).