Department of Psychology, Health and Technology, Center for eHealth and Wellbeing Research, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands.
Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
J Med Internet Res. 2020 Oct 23;22(10):e20404. doi: 10.2196/20404.
eHealth technologies aim to change users' health-related behavior. Persuasive design and system features can make an eHealth technology more motivating, engaging, or supportive to its users. The Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model incorporates software features that have the possibility to increase the persuasiveness of technologies. However, the effects of specific PSD software features on the effectiveness of an intervention are still largely unknown. The Perceived Persuasiveness Questionnaire (PPQ) was developed to gain insight into the working mechanisms of persuasive technologies. Although the PPQ seems to be a suitable method for measuring subjective persuasiveness, it needs to be further evaluated to determine how suitable it is for measuring perceived persuasiveness among the public.
This study aims to evaluate the face and construct validity of the PPQ, identify points of improvement, and provide suggestions for further development of the PPQ.
A web-based closed-ended card-sort study was performed wherein participants grouped existing PPQ items under existing PPQ constructs. Participants were invited via a Massive Open Online Course on eHealth. A total of 398 people (average age 44.15 years, SD 15.17; 251/398, 63.1% women) completed the card sort. Face validity was evaluated by determining the item-level agreement of the original PPQ constructs. Construct validity was evaluated by determining the construct in which each item was placed most often, regardless of the original placement and how often 2 items were (regardless of the constructs) paired together and what interitem correlations were according to a cluster analysis.
Four PPQ constructs obtained relatively high face validity scores: perceived social support, use continuance, perceived credibility, and perceived effort. Item-level agreement on the other constructs was relatively low. Item-level agreement for almost all constructs, except perceived effort and perceived effectiveness, would increase if items would be grouped differently. Finally, a cluster analysis of the PPQ indicated that the strengths of the newly identified 9 clusters varied strongly. Unchanged strong clusters were only found for perceived credibility support, perceived social support, and use continuance. The placement of the other items was much more spread out over the other constructs, suggesting an overlap between them.
The findings of this study provide a solid starting point toward a redesigned PPQ that is a true asset to the field of persuasiveness research. To achieve this, we advocate that the redesigned PPQ should adhere more closely to what persuasiveness is according to the PSD model and to the mental models of potential end users of technology. The revised PPQ should, for example, enquire if the user thinks anything is done to provide task support but not how this is done exactly.
电子健康技术旨在改变用户与健康相关的行为。有说服力的设计和系统功能可以使电子健康技术对用户更有激励性、吸引力或支持性。说服系统设计（PSD）模型包含有可能增加技术说服力的软件功能。然而，特定的 PSD 软件功能对干预效果的影响在很大程度上仍然未知。感知说服力问卷（PPQ）是为了深入了解有说服力的技术的工作机制而开发的。尽管 PPQ 似乎是一种测量主观说服力的合适方法，但仍需要进一步评估，以确定其在测量公众感知说服力方面的适用性。
本研究旨在评估 PPQ 的表面效度和结构效度，确定改进点，并为进一步开发 PPQ 提供建议。
通过网络进行封闭式卡片分类研究，参与者根据现有的 PPQ 结构对现有的 PPQ 项目进行分组。通过大规模开放在线课程（MOOC）邀请参与者参加电子健康课程。共有 398 人（平均年龄 44.15 岁，标准差 15.17；251/398，63.1%为女性）完成了卡片分类。通过确定原始 PPQ 结构的项目级一致性来评估表面效度。通过确定每个项目最常放置的结构来评估结构效度，而不管原始放置位置和两个项目（不管结构）配对的频率以及根据聚类分析的项目间相关性如何。
四个 PPQ 结构获得了相对较高的表面效度得分：感知社会支持、使用连续性、感知可信度和感知努力。其他结构的项目级一致性相对较低。如果项目分组不同，几乎所有结构的项目级一致性都会增加，除了感知努力和感知有效性。最后，对 PPQ 的聚类分析表明，新确定的 9 个聚类的强度差异很大。只有感知可信度支持、感知社会支持和使用连续性的不变强聚类被发现。其他项目的放置则更分散在其他结构上，表明它们之间存在重叠。
本研究的结果为重新设计 PPQ 提供了一个坚实的起点，这是说服力研究领域的一项真正资产。为此，我们主张重新设计的 PPQ 应更紧密地遵循 PSD 模型和技术潜在最终用户的心理模型中的说服力。例如，修订后的 PPQ 应该询问用户是否认为有任何操作可以提供任务支持，而不是如何做到这一点。
