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Do feelings matter? On the correlation of affects and the self-assessed productivity in software engineering
Software Engineering · Submitted 6 Aug 2014
abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review
The authors' main claim Conclusion: this article demonstrates the value of applying psychological tests in SE and echoes a call to valorize the human, individualized aspects of software developers.
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The abstract, sentence by sentence
Background: software engineering research (SE) lacks theory and methodologies for addressing human aspects in software development. Development tasks are undertaken through cognitive processing activities. Affects (emotions, moods, feelings) have a linkage to cognitive processing activities and the productivity of individuals. SE research needs to incorporate affect measurements to valorize human factors and to enhance management styles. Objective: analyze the affects dimensions of valence, arousal, and dominance of software developers and their real-time correlation with their self-assessed productivity (sPR). Method: repeated measurements design with 8 participants (4 students, 4 professionals), conveniently sampled and studied individually over 90 minutes of programming. The analysis was performed by fitting a linear mixed- effects (LME) model. Results: valence and dominance are positively correlated with the sPR. The model was able to express about 38% of deviance from the sPR. Many lessons were learned when employing psychological measurements in SE and for fitting LME. Conclusion: this article demonstrates the value of applying psychological tests in SE and echoes a call to valorize the human, individualized aspects of software developers. It reports a body of knowledge about affects, their classification, their measurement, and the best practices to perform psychological measurements in SE with LME models.
background contribution method result interpretation main claim
| # | sentence | role | the authors' own work | states the main conclusion | strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s0 | Background: software engineering research (SE) lacks theory and methodologies for addressing human aspects in software development. | background 0.80 | 0.04 | 0.01 | asserted 1.00 |
| s1 | Development tasks are undertaken through cognitive processing activities. | background 1.00 | 0.05 | 0.01 | asserted 1.00 |
| s2 | Affects (emotions, moods, feelings) have a linkage to cognitive processing activities and the productivity of individuals. | background 1.00 | 0.07 | 0.06 | asserted 0.99 |
| s3 | SE research needs to incorporate affect measurements to valorize human factors and to enhance management styles. | background 0.52 | 0.05 | 0.05 | asserted 0.94 |
| s4 | Objective: analyze the affects dimensions of valence, arousal, and dominance of software developers and their real-time correlation with their self-assessed productivity (sPR). | contribution 0.99 | 0.55 | 0.03 | asserted 0.72 |
| s5 | Method: repeated measurements design with 8 participants (4 students, 4 professionals), conveniently sampled and studied individually over 90 minutes of programming. | method 1.00 | 0.95 | 0.01 | asserted 0.98 |
| s6 | The analysis was performed by fitting a linear mixed- effects (LME) model. | method 1.00 | 0.91 | 0.01 | asserted 0.99 |
| s7 | Results: valence and dominance are positively correlated with the sPR. | result 1.00 | 0.96 | 0.35 | asserted 1.00 |
| s8 | The model was able to express about 38% of deviance from the sPR. | result 1.00 | 0.96 | 0.04 | asserted 0.99 |
| s9 | Many lessons were learned when employing psychological measurements in SE and for fitting LME. | contribution 0.33 | 0.82 | 0.02 | asserted 0.99 |
| s10 | Conclusion: this article demonstrates the value of applying psychological tests in SE and echoes a call to valorize the human, individualized aspects of software developers. | interpretation 0.87 | 0.79 | 0.96 | asserted 1.00 |
| s11 | It reports a body of knowledge about affects, their classification, their measurement, and the best practices to perform psychological measurements in SE with LME models. | contribution 0.99 | 0.43 | 0.08 | asserted 1.00 |
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The paper
Original abstract
Background: software engineering research (SE) lacks theory and methodologies for addressing human aspects in software development. Development tasks are undertaken through cognitive processing activities. Affects (emotions, moods, feelings) have a linkage to cognitive processing activities and the productivity of individuals. SE research needs to incorporate affect measurements to valorize human factors and to enhance management styles. Objective: analyze the affects dimensions of valence, arousal, and dominance of software developers and their real-time correlation with their self-assessed productivity (sPR). Method: repeated measurements design with 8 participants (4 students, 4 professionals), conveniently sampled and studied individually over 90 minutes of programming. The analysis was performed by fitting a linear mixed- effects (LME) model. Results: valence and dominance are positively correlated with the sPR. The model was able to express about 38% of deviance from the sPR. Many lessons were learned when employing psychological measurements in SE and for fitting LME. Conclusion: this article demonstrates the value of applying psychological tests in SE and echoes a call to valorize the human, individualized aspects of software developers. It reports a body of knowledge about affects, their classification, their measurement, and the best practices to perform psychological measurements in SE with LME models.
Human review
How the literature uses it
3 arXiv papers cite this in 4 sentences
Papers whose main result relates to this one's
States the same result 1 paper
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Two affective states dimensions are positively correlated with self-assessed productivity.
Papers citing it · 2 sentences without a confident label
Cites it as support 1 paper
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This is fundamental, as research indicates that emotions have direct linkages to productivity [ref] , through stimulating cognitive processing abilities and creativity.
Emotimonitor: A Trello Power-Up to Capture Emotions of Agile Teams · Introduction · 1.00
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