Robert Barber

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Graham, Steven

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

For adolescents and young adults today, video games have become a widely popular activity. Unfortunately, mental health problems are also very common for these age groups. In attempting to use a widely accepted form of entertainment as a potentially therapeutic measure, psychologists and game designers have been teaming up to create “serious games” for mental health. This study thus attempted to measure how effective a video game designed to arouse positive emotions in the player (Flower) actually is, particularly in comparison to a control video game (Pong). Forty-three undergraduate college participants filled out the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Flow State Scale (FSS), watched either a stressor video clip or a control video clip, and played 15 minutes of either Flower or Pong. Results showed that both video clips decreased positive affect and increased negative affect in participants, both video games increased positive affect and decreased negative affect in participants, and no significant difference was found on any dependent variable based on which video or video game condition participants had been assigned to. These findings may show that all video games have the potential to improve affect, and that mood-enhancing video games may be no different than other video games. Limitations, implications, and future directions are all discussed.

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