Evaluations of Human Emotional State & Affective Computing to Support Job-Seekers

The act of re-engaging the unemployed into work is a crucial policy agenda and the main task of employment agencies. However, the means of accomplishing this task is challenging because the employment agencies have not helped much in given effective job search advice to job seekers in applying to the right vacancy. In recent times, behavioral economics research has revealed that people make systematic mistakes in decision-making. Most times job seekers fail in predictable ways not because they lack knowledge, practice, or willingness, but because they are limited in the way, they make decisions: "forces" that influence them (e.g., emotions, relativity, social norms, etc) trick the brains. However, this is not a helpless situation. Once the job seekers understand when and where they might make erroneous decisions in applying to the right vacancies. The goal of this research is to develop and compare different technological interventions and measure long-term their ability to provoke positive changes in the life of the users in applying for the right vacancies. The researchers intend to recruit 70 subjects (20-40 years) and to make use of a pre-assessment tool such as questionnaires, interact, and conduct surveys and interviews to administer to selected job seekers communities in order to measure their level of cognitive abilities and their link to human stress in the context of applying to the right vacancy. The researchers intend to collect three types of data from the selected subjects. The data include: (a) demographic data, (b) psychological data, which capture a subject's general susceptibility to stress and (c) self-report data, on the subject's stress and workload levels. Then, Ecological Momentarily Intervention (EMI) is use to examine how the users can be intervened with right context, encouragement, or support in the right moment in order to reduce their burden and increase intervention personalization in applying for the right vacancy.