Applying psychology to understand relationships with technology: from ELIZA to interactive healthcare

Increasingly sophisticated interactive devices are being developed to meet the requirements of healthcare services that place greater emphasis on self-management. This article considers the importance of the relationships that users form with technology from the perspective of the human–computer interaction literature and the clinical psychology literature. It is argued that users are often willing to engage in relationships with technology that share many features of relationships between humans. Furthermore, within human-delivered healthcare, the quality of the relationship formed with a clinician predicts the effectiveness of the treatment. Thus, the effectiveness of interactive healthcare technology is, in part, dependent on the relationship the user forms with the technology. Applying psychological theory to the relationship between user and technology provides a way of understanding these human–computer interactions and thus improving the process of developing self-management technology.