Literature Review - 1

About Stigma in Mental Health

Literature by Helen Christensen

1. Stigma about depression and its impact on help-seeking intentions
   Conclusion: Stigma exists prevalently; from both oneself and others, also caused by expectation of negative response (from doctors/psychologists). Young people are more unwilling to seek for help when meeting mental-health problems.
   Note: Data and analysis is provided, but no practical solutions are presented.
2. Stigma in response to mental disorders: a comparison of Australia and Japan
   Conclusion: Stigma exists in both countries; stigma is more serious in Japan.
   Notes: Possible solutions:
1. Reduce social conformity and individualism.
   (impossible for a game)
2. Improve service delivery system, so that people with mental problems can contact with the society more frequently.
   (impossible for a game)
3. Provide education about public mental health (stigma reduction programs included).
   For the game: provide such kind of education and stigma reduction programs in the gameplay, e.g. embedded in the game stories, a mission on this topic, etc.
4. Conduct public awareness programs to show the real rate of stigma in the community.
   (impossible for a game)
5.  Increase people's willingness to talk with a person with mental disorder
   For the game: provide education to increase people's willingness. It is possible to integrate this education with the stories/mission in 3.
3. Exploring the nature of stigmatising beliefs about depression and help-seeking: Implications for reducing stigma
   Conclusion: Points in reducing stigma (of depression):
   target attributions of blame; decrease depressed people's avoidance; make people feel that depression is a "health condition" rather than "mental illness"; increase help-sources' response.
   Notes: Possible solutions (for stigma around depression):
1. Provide education about the raise of depression
   For the game: Introduce some mental problems and their causes and solutions. But it may make the game boring.
2. Reduce the concerns about others' negative attitude
   (impossible for a game)
3. Reduce psychology professionals negative responses towards people with mental problems
   (impossible for a game)
4. Change the general public attitude towards people with mental problems
   (impossible for a game)
4. Effects of a Cognitive-Behavioural Internet Program on Depression, Vulnerability to Depression and Stigma in Adolescent Males: A School-Based Controlled Trial
   Conclusion: Internet cognitive behaviour therapy programs like MoodGYM can decrease the risk of depression.
   Notes:
   Possible solutions:
1. The programs should be attractive to the users (adolescent males) and should not be too difficult.
   For the game: If mental education stories or missions are applied in the game, they should be easy and interesting
2. The program materials should be in a format that are not difficult to the users.
   For the game: Similar to the above one.
3. Pay attention to the short lasting effect.
   For the game: Do the education repeatedly in different stories and missions. May make the game boring.

About Counselling Psychology

1. Handbook of Counselling Psychology
   (695 pages)
   The book talks about the development of counselling psychology and many aspects and issues about counselling psychology.

Gantt Chart

The project file is hosted in Google Drive (Gantter is needed to view the project).

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7VQnpN8MOL4aE5XRWE3ck9qRjQ/edit?usp=sharing

Gantt chart in png:

Draft Proposal

Title:

Web game for well-being

Proposer:

Xiaodong Sun

Supervisor:

A/PROF Rafael Calvo

Background

The effect of electronic games on teenagers has long been contentious. Research shows that playing games cooperatively can improve the relationship between players. And cooperative gameplay in family can also help to build stronger family relationships, thus improving family members' mental health and providing better support when mental issues arise. Currently the development of pervasive computing and wireless network boosts not only business, but also electronic entertainment. A web game on multiple platforms can help family members play games together without the impeding of time or space.

The project's purpose is to develop a web game which can help users to build stronger family relationships, so that the users have better opportunities of getting and providing mental support to their families.

Problem Statement

A lot of issues need to be solved before the success of this web game.

Game Design

1. How to involve both the children and parents?
   Cooperative gameplay is the core activity in this game. Therefore the game shall be designed that it can only be finished under the cooperation of both the children and the parents. The game shall be interesting for the children so that they are willing to participate in the cooperation with their parents. It will be better (but not necessary) if the game is also interesting for the parents.
2. How to encourage children's discussion of sensitive issues with their parents?
   The project aims to encourage the children to seek for help from their parents when encountering sensitive issues. Cole and Griffiths found that online game players are more willing to discuss sensitive issues with their play mates (than real life friend) because the anonymity and the similar age range, which neither exists in child-parent relationships. Without a good solution to this problem, even if the game improves the child-parent relationships, it may not improve the mental well-being of children.
3. How to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues?
   The game is also designed to make players feel that mental health issues are as equivalent to any other health issues, so that the players will be confident to seek help when encountering mental problems.

A deep literature review in psychology and game design fields is needed to find solutions to the above problems.

Game Development

1. Applying the Spring framework.
   Spring framework is expected to be applied in this project. This framework is complicated and totally new to me. This issue can be addressed by learning of the framework before the development phase.
2. Server interface design
   The server shall provide interfaces which are called by both a responsive web app/ website and a mobile app. It is complicated and requires consideration of protocol, data transfer and security.

Methodologies

The qualitative research methodology will be applied in this project due to the limitation of time and resource for an MPE project. The design and development will be based on past research and deduction of current theories. The product of the project will be tested by special selected users. User's views will be collected by 1:1 interviews, and several deep questions will be asked to get more valuable feedback.

Schedule

1. Background research and requirement analysis
   Jan 3rd ~ Mar 27th (Topic Proposal due)
1. Background related literature review
   Jan 3rd ~ Jan 6th
2. Requirement analysis
   Jan 6th ~ Mar 7th
1. mock up
2. simple prototype
3. meeting with UI designer and psychology expert
3. Scope negotiation and feature selection
   Mar 7th ~ Mar 14th (Topic Registration due)
4. Formal requirement document and project plan
   Mar 14th ~ Mar 21st
5. Literature review (psychology and game design)
   Mar 7th ~ Mar 27th
2. Design
   Mar 31st ~ Apr 25th
1. System structure
2. Back end
1. Detailed software structure design
2. Data model
3. Front end?
4. Development iteration plan
5. Learn Spring
3. Development
   Apr 28th ~ Jul 20th, except the exam weeks; 1 week per iteration
1. Development
2. Progress report
   May 19th ~ Jun 5th (Progress Report due)
1. draft
   May 19th ~ May 29th
2. final
   May 30th ~ Jun 5th
4. Test and draft thesis
   Jul 21st ~ Oct 10th (Draft Thesis may due on Oct 24th)
1. Alpha test
   Jul 21st ~ Jul 27th
2. Inner beta test
   Jul 28th ~ Aug 8th
3. release and field test
   Aug 11th ~ Oct 10th
4. draft thesis and wait for test result
   Aug 11th ~ Oct 10th
5. Data analysis
   Oct 11th ~ Oct 17th
6. Final thesis
   Oct 17th ~ Nov 6th (Final Thesis may due on Nov 7th)
7. Presentation
   Nov 7th ~ Nov 13th (Presentation may be on Nov 14th)