How do you feel, developer? An explanatory theory of the impact of affects on programming performance

Affects—emotions and moods—have an impact on cognitive activities and the working performance of individuals. Development tasks are undertaken through cognitive processes, yet software engineering research lacks theory on affects and their impact on software development activities. In this paper, we...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Daniel Graziotin, Xiaofeng Wang, Pekka Abrahamsson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PeerJ Inc. 2015-08-01
Series:PeerJ Computer Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://peerj.com/articles/cs-18.pdf
id doaj-dd0cd1227b834ce0b0638cac9065b3a7
record_format Article
spelling doaj-dd0cd1227b834ce0b0638cac9065b3a72020-11-24T23:30:40ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ Computer Science2376-59922015-08-011e1810.7717/peerj-cs.18How do you feel, developer? An explanatory theory of the impact of affects on programming performanceDaniel Graziotin0Xiaofeng Wang1Pekka Abrahamsson2Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano/Bozen, ItalyFaculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano/Bozen, ItalyDepartment of Computer and Information Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, NorwayAffects—emotions and moods—have an impact on cognitive activities and the working performance of individuals. Development tasks are undertaken through cognitive processes, yet software engineering research lacks theory on affects and their impact on software development activities. In this paper, we report on an interpretive study aimed at broadening our understanding of the psychology of programming in terms of the experience of affects while programming, and the impact of affects on programming performance. We conducted a qualitative interpretive study based on: face-to-face open-ended interviews, in-field observations, and e-mail exchanges. This enabled us to construct a novel explanatory theory of the impact of affects on development performance. The theory is explicated using an established taxonomy framework. The proposed theory builds upon the concepts of events, affects, attractors, focus, goals, and performance. Theoretical and practical implications are given.https://peerj.com/articles/cs-18.pdfAffectsEmotionsProductivityMoodsPsychology of programmingHuman aspects of software engineering
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Daniel Graziotin
Xiaofeng Wang
Pekka Abrahamsson
spellingShingle Daniel Graziotin
Xiaofeng Wang
Pekka Abrahamsson
How do you feel, developer? An explanatory theory of the impact of affects on programming performance
PeerJ Computer Science
Affects
Emotions
Productivity
Moods
Psychology of programming
Human aspects of software engineering
author_facet Daniel Graziotin
Xiaofeng Wang
Pekka Abrahamsson
author_sort Daniel Graziotin
title How do you feel, developer? An explanatory theory of the impact of affects on programming performance
title_short How do you feel, developer? An explanatory theory of the impact of affects on programming performance
title_full How do you feel, developer? An explanatory theory of the impact of affects on programming performance
title_fullStr How do you feel, developer? An explanatory theory of the impact of affects on programming performance
title_full_unstemmed How do you feel, developer? An explanatory theory of the impact of affects on programming performance
title_sort how do you feel, developer? an explanatory theory of the impact of affects on programming performance
publisher PeerJ Inc.
series PeerJ Computer Science
issn 2376-5992
publishDate 2015-08-01
description Affects—emotions and moods—have an impact on cognitive activities and the working performance of individuals. Development tasks are undertaken through cognitive processes, yet software engineering research lacks theory on affects and their impact on software development activities. In this paper, we report on an interpretive study aimed at broadening our understanding of the psychology of programming in terms of the experience of affects while programming, and the impact of affects on programming performance. We conducted a qualitative interpretive study based on: face-to-face open-ended interviews, in-field observations, and e-mail exchanges. This enabled us to construct a novel explanatory theory of the impact of affects on development performance. The theory is explicated using an established taxonomy framework. The proposed theory builds upon the concepts of events, affects, attractors, focus, goals, and performance. Theoretical and practical implications are given.
topic Affects
Emotions
Productivity
Moods
Psychology of programming
Human aspects of software engineering
url https://peerj.com/articles/cs-18.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT danielgraziotin howdoyoufeeldeveloperanexplanatorytheoryoftheimpactofaffectsonprogrammingperformance
AT xiaofengwang howdoyoufeeldeveloperanexplanatorytheoryoftheimpactofaffectsonprogrammingperformance
AT pekkaabrahamsson howdoyoufeeldeveloperanexplanatorytheoryoftheimpactofaffectsonprogrammingperformance
_version_ 1725540946117918720