Technology evaluations are associated with psychological need satisfaction across different spheres of experience: an application of the METUX scales

Abstract

Introduction: Digital technologies have the capacity to impact psychological wellbeing in both positive and negative ways. Improving technologies with respect to wellbeing requires nuanced understanding of this impact and reliable ways to measure it. Here, we aim to further this understanding by investigating the relations between psychological needs and people's evaluations of technologies (with respect to satisfaction, usability, and measures of value). Method: Across two studies with 1,521 participants, we improved and validated four scales that were first put forward as part of the METUX model of technology interaction. These scales measure psychological needs in the life, behavior, task, and interface spheres of experience. We applied these scales to four separate technologies (Facebook, TikTok, Blackboard, and Moodle), and examined the relationships between people's need satisfaction and frustration in the four spheres of experience and their overall evaluations of the technologies. Results and discussion: Each of the four scales had good psychometric properties across the four technologies. For each sphere of experience, psychological need satisfaction and frustration were associated with standard measures of usability and user satisfaction, and correlation patterns supported the METUX model and its approach to differentiating spheres of technology experience.