**4.2 Technostress and positive emotions**

ICT users probably feel that their capabilities are not compatible with the requirements of the new ICT and that they have limited control over them. They then feel uncomfortable because this creates technostress. So they will implement strategies to overcome these painful experiences (mitigation), whether they are related to the users' psychological expectations, rejection or wishful thinking (inward), or related to realizing and seeking support that affects their emotions directly (outward), or not. This strategy is called emotion-focused coping [71].

This strategy mainly focuses on the effort to restore emotional stability and reduce the tension caused by the implementation of a new ICT system. This paper highlights that cognitive dynamic instability results in the ICT users' adverse impacts. For instance, we infer that the users' coping strategies are based on the control theory [1, 72], which was mentioned earlier, and these can cope with a chaotic situation or technostress. We argue that users' self-control (inward) and feedback on the assigned task's performance (outward) are the types of strategies which have a direct impact.

Self-control gives ICT users the belief that they could implement the system successfully. It takes into account the users' self-control because the system's development process is complex, and needs intensive involvement and the interaction of various agents [73]. Meanwhile, feedback is a communication process that involves a source (sender) and destination (receiver) [74]. Concerning the performance aspects or understanding the system, the ICT itself could provide feedback to the users who search for answers and solutions, so that they can evaluate whether they have the correct response or not [75].

By applying a contrast analysis, we confirmed that the broaden-and-build theory [76] explains that positive emotions can improve ICT users' capabilities to cope with their technostress. Positive emotions are affective components which ICT users typically find pleasurable to experience. Positive emotions could help ICT users to broaden their horizons, and then widen the scope of their focus [77]. Positive emotions could also increase the users' performance of a cognitive task by lifting their spirits without distracting them [78].

Expressly, we undertook a study which indicated that positive task performance feedback could boost the positive feelings of ICT users. It documented that the users who have low self-control also perform their tasks poorly. If they receive some form of therapy and positive feedback, their understanding is better than that of the ICT users who receive negative feedback. Our study, furthermore, showed that positive emotions play an essential role when ICT users face the harmful effects of technostress on their performance [76, 79]. Moreover, this study found that positive emotions affect both those with low and high self-control. It found that ICT users' task performances, for those with both low and high levels of self-control, were not different. It means that positive emotions have a more profound effect on mitigating the adverse impacts of technostress. The authors, therefore, argue that positive feedback could enhance the users' self-efficacy and individual innovativeness.
