Year: 2022
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This paper is about how gamification could be used in a battle against depression. Gamification and depression are both huge topics, hence this paper’s scope had to be narrowed down. This paper’s main focus is on understanding how humans’ motivation works in relation with gamification. This is then linked with some of the reasons why depressed people are unable to get help to their illness. At the end of the thesis, I give a few points on what people who develop gamified mental health apps should think about in the future. To do this, I first conducted a small literature review on the topic. I researched motivation, gamification, and how gamification has been used against depression in the past to gain knowledge in the subject. After the literature review, I then did empirical research and interviewed the founder of a company that develops gamified mental health app to understand what is currently being done in this field. The result of all this is that I found out what is currently being done regarding gamification and depression. From the interview I gained understanding what is currently being done regarding gamified mental health apps and from the literature review I found out what has been done in this subject in close history. For example, I found out that gamification can really be used in the fight against depression, because multiple studies have come into conclusion that remote treatment works. There are few key things to consider when developing an app that is used in treating depression. It is important to understand that depression is a complex illness, and each person faces it differently, and therefore the treatment for it cannot be similar for everyone either. This means that being able to modify the app is an important feature. In addition to that, the features in the app are a crucial part of how motivated people are to use it. One important thing to consider is social features (such as giving achievements to users and letting users communicate with each other) and how to implement them so they affect users positively.
Source: Aaltodoc (Aalto University)
Author: Vuorela, Mikko
Language: English
Subfield: Applied Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7058257758