Abstract

Abstract
There have been a variety of research approaches that have examined the stress issues related to human-computer interaction including laboratory studies, cross-sectional surveys, longitudinal case studies and intervention studies. A critical review of these studies indicates that there are important physiological, biochemical, somatic and psychological indicators of stress that are related to work activities where human-computer interaction occurs. In a medical or biological context, stress is a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension, which can cause or influence the course of many medical conditions including psychological conditions such as depression and anxiety. In these cases, individuals are under an increasing demand for performance, driving them to be under constant pressure, and consequently to present variations in their levels of stress. To mitigate this condition, this paper proposes to add a new dimension in human-computer interaction through the development of a distributed multi-modal framework approach entitled X3S, which aims to monitor and assess the psychological stress of computer users during high-end tasks, in a non-intrusive and non-invasive way, through the access of soft sensors activity (e.g. task performance and human behaviour). This approach presents as its main innovative key the capacity to validate each stress model trained for each individual through the analysis of cortisol and stress assessment survey data. Overall, this paper discusses how groups of medical students can be monitored through their interactions with the computer. Its main aim is to provide a stress marker that can be effectively used in large numbers of users and without inconvenience.

Abstract

Abstract
In today's society, there is a compelling need for innovative approaches for the solution of many pressing problems, such as understanding the fluctuations in the performance of an individual when involved in complex and high-stake tasks. In these cases, individuals are under an increasing demand for performance, driving them to be under constant pressure, and consequently to present variations in their levels of stress. Human stress can be viewed as an agent, circumstance, situation, or variable that disturbs the normal functioning of an individual, that when not managed can bring mental problems, such as chronic stress or depression. In this paper, we propose a different approach for this problem. The EUStress application is a non-intrusive and non-invasive performance monitoring environment based on behavioural biometrics and real time analysis, used to quantify the level of stress of individuals during online exams.

Abstract
Contextual factors allow us to fully grasp an event, situation, communication process or action. Frequently, the context in which an event takes place provides more valuable information than the event itself. This chapter addresses context and its importance from a general perspective and in the particular domain of conflict resolution. It describes many different contextual dimensions such as the verbal, social or cultural, pointing out the importance of each one to understand individuals’ actions. It then moves on to the address the recent field of Context-aware Computing: the vision of computers that are sensible to contextual cues, harness it and use such information to provide better services. Several context-aware solutions are described in this chapter that point out the range of application domains. However, no such application exists in the domain of conflict resolution. While the next chapters are dedicated do describing the components of such an application, this chapter ends with the enumeration of several contextual dimensions that are of relevance to fully describe a conflict and its resolution process.

Abstract
Each one of us has a particular way to behave before a conflict. We can assume a cooperative and collaborative attitude or we can behave in a more selfish or competitive way. Given our personality traits or our past experiences, each one has a tendency to behave more towards one or the other. Nonetheless, there are also external factors that influence our conflict handling style including the individuals we are conflicting with, our level of stress or fatigue, the level of escalation of the conflict or even the context or the setting in which it is being settled. Undeniably, the personal conflict resolution style of the parties is preponderant for the outcome of the conflict resolution process. The mediator, while knowing the style of each party, may better conduct the process, namely by pointing out and changing unrealistic, selfish or overly competitive behaviors. Traditionally, the mediator makes use of questionnaires to assess the conflict resolution style of the parties. In this chapter we detail a new view on the problem in which this knowledge is built in real-time, in a non-invasive way, based on the behavior evidenced by the parties during the conflict resolution process. The level of escalation of the conflict is also analyzed similarly, through the non-invasive analysis of the level of stress of the parties during the actual negotiation process. The relationship between stress and the personal conflict handling style is also studied.