Understanding effective coaching on healthy lifestyle by combining theory- and data-driven approaches

New wearable technologies such as health watches and smartphones provide rich data and give the opportunity to learn about the user’s preference, traits, states and context. Our research aim is to uncover principles of effective coaching and to deliver personalized e-coaching applications in the domain of healthy lifestyle, by using both psychological theory and data science techniques. We believe the synergy of both fields will result in a deeper understanding of effective coaching. Theory provides plausibility criteria and ‘behavioral templates’ which help to understand the meaning of data. On the other hand, data can fine tune theory, especially in terms of studying individual differences and tailoring. Our research plans include a review of literature, interviews with health coaches and studying real life coaching data to generate hypotheses. Next, we plan to use adaptive tools in user trials, where both data-driven and theory-driven approaches can be combined.