Automatic emotion regulation of psychological overwhelm for software developers

ABSTRACT

Due to the steadily increasing digitalization and the lack of social contact during the Covid-19 pandemic, the workload, and stress of software developers increases. This may lead to psychological overwhelm, when negative emotions caused by heavy stress are not detected early enough to be treated effectively. Machine Learning made it possible to recognize emotions in human beings using physiological features automatically. Nonetheless, current research lacks of methods to detect psychological overwhelm in software developers during work early. Furthermore, means are necessary to react to such detection properly. In this research, we investigate the methods for enabling an automatic emotion regulation for psychological overwhelm of software developers using multimodal physiological sensors, Machine Learning and the qualitative inquiry method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The goal is to find solutions to improve the psychological well-being of software developers and the associated quality of software development through the use of emotion regulation techniques. Raising awareness of the problem of psychological overwhelm among software developers will lead to a more profound understanding of its impact on the overall quality of software development and the mental health of software developers. © 2022 IEEE.