Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experience of older people and their sense of developing wellbeing, including consideration of the strategies they employ to respond to perceived risk.

An Appreciative Inquiry study was used, which collected data with 58 participants in focus group and individual interviews. Interviews focussed on ways in which older people in South Africa, Australia, Germany and the UK understand and seek to maintain wellbeing.

The changing time horizons of older people lead to perceptions of risk and concerns that embrace societal as well as individual concerns. Often, this leads to a sense of societal responsibility and desire for social change, which is frustrated by a perceived exclusion from participation in society.

In mental health practice and education, it is imperative to embrace the shift from ageist concerns (with later life viewed as risky and tragic in itself) towards a greater sensitivity for older people’s resilience, the strategies they deploy to maintain this, and their desire for more control and respect for their potential to contribute to society.

Variation in time horizons leads to changes in temporal accounting, which may be under-utilised by society. Consequently, societies may not recognise and support the resilience of older people to the detriment of older people as individuals and to the wider society.

Telepresence robots (TPRs) are an emerging field of application and research that have received attention from various disciplines, including computer science, telehealth and education. The purpose of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of publications on TPR in the Web of Science database from 1980 to 2022 to gain a better understanding of the state of research on TPRs and explore the role of pedagogical and psychological aspects in this research.

The analysis of research publications on TPRs was made on the basis of papers published in the Web of Science database from 1980 to 2022. The following research questions were proposed: What are the main tendencies in publication years, document types, countries of origin, source titles, publication authors, affiliations of authors and the most cited articles related to TPRs? What are the main topics discussed in the publications from the perspective of psychology? What are the main topics discussed in the publications from the perspective of educational sciences?

The results indicate that it is in the computer science where most of the existing research has been conducted, whereas the interest in the psychology and educational science has been relatively low. The greatest regional contributor has been the USA, whereas the effort in the European Union lags behind. Research publications in psychology in the Web of Science database related to TPRs can be grouped into three broad thematic categories: features of TPRs, degree of social presence compared to physical presence or other mediated technologies and opportunities for using TPRs. The results suggest that from the perspective of psychology, TPRs are one of the approaches that could enable greater social presence in remote communication. Most of the analysed papers in educational sciences investigated the opportunities of using TPRs in various educational fields. However, while the findings of the studies indicated significant potential of TPRs for education, their acceptance for wider use is still challenged.

The limitations of this research are that this study only analysed research papers in the Web of Science database and therefore only covers a limited number of scientific papers published in the field of psychology and educational sciences on TPRs. In addition, only publications with the term “telepresence robots” in the topic area of the Web of Science database were analysed. Therefore, several relevant studies are not discussed in this paper that are not reflected in the Web of Science database or were related to other keywords.

The field of TPRs has not been explored using a bibliographic analysis of publications in the Web of Science database from the perspective of psychology and educational sciences. The findings of this paper will help researchers and academic staff better understand the state of research on TPRs and the pedagogical and psychological aspects addressed in this research.

This first part of a two-part paper aims to provide an insight into the ethical and legal issues associated with certain classes of robot. This part is concerned with ethics.

Following an introduction, this paper first considers the ethical deliberations surrounding robots used in warfare and healthcare. It then addresses the issue of robot truth and deception and subsequently discusses some on-going deliberations and possible ways forward. Finally, brief conclusions are drawn.

Robot ethics are the topic of wide-ranging debate and encompass such diverse applications as military drones and robotic carers. Many ethical considerations have been raised including philosophical issues such as moral behaviour and truth and deception. Preliminary research suggests that some of these concerns may be ameliorated through the use of software which encompasses ethical principles. It is widely recognised that a multidisciplinary approach is required and there is growing evidence of this.

This paper provides an insight into the highly topical and complex issue of robot ethics.