Designing for Unpleasant Memories: Investigating the Role of Technology in Reflective Practices

While human memory-aiding technologies often focus on preserving and sharing positive moments, people also revisit their emotionally complex memories, including both positive and negative emotions, to reflect, make sense of their past experiences, and achieve personal growth.This research investigates how digital technologies can support such reflective engagement with unpleasant memories.Through three interrelated studies, I explore (1) how individuals with different cognitive thinking styles, ruminators and reflectors, engage with technology during reflection on unpleasant memories, (2) how existing reflective technologies support or overlook these practices, and (3) how co-design workshops can reveal new design directions that support personal growth.Collectively, these studies aim to inform the design of emotionally aware technologies that support psychological well-being by enabling meaningful reflection on including unpleasant personal experiences.