Skip to main content

Design for Happiness - Positive Psychology Through Social Media Games

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Serious Games (JCSG 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9894))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

This project targeted the concept of happiness and the development of an intelligent social media game to utilize positive psychology techniques to enhance user happiness. The HeHa (Happiness Enhancing Helper Application) was built around the principles of positive psychology, including the identification and active pursuit of signature strengths. It functioned as a social media application and worked by encouraging, through gameplay and active suggestions, social media interactions that support the users personal signature strengths. A randomized control trial of sixty users was carried out to ascertain the effectiveness of the HeHa in enhancing interaction, satisfaction and happiness. The findings showed that users of the HeHa enhanced social media game demonstrated increased happiness levels using the tool.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Seligman, M.: Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being. Simon and Schuster, New York (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Seligman, M.: Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. Simon and Schuster, New York (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Abramson, L., Seligman, M., Teasdale, J.: Learned helplessness in humans: critique and reformulation. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 87(1), 49 (1978)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Suldo, S., Savage, J., Mercer, S.: Increasing middle school students’ life satisfaction: efficacy of a positive psychology group intervention. J. Happiness Stud. 15(1), 19–42 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Manicavasagar, V., Horswood, D., Burckhardt, R., Lum, A., Hadzi-Pavlovic, D., Parker, G.: Feasibility and effectiveness of a web-based positive psychology program for youth mental health: randomized controlled trial. J. Med. Internet Res. 16(6), e140 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Seligman, M., Steen, T., Park, N., Peterson, C.: Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. Am. Psychol. 60(5), 410 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Proyer, R., Gander, F., Wellenzohn, S., Ruch, W.: Positive psychology interventions in people aged 50–79 years: long-term effects of placebo-controlled online interventions on well-being and depression. Aging Mental Health 18(8), 997–1005 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Proyer, R., Gander, F., Wellenzohn, S., Ruch, W.: Strengths-based positive psychology interventions: a randomized placebo-controlled online trial on long-term effects for a signature strengths-vs. a lesser strengths-intervention. Front. Psychol. 6, 456 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Sosik, V., Cosley, D.: Leveraging social media content to support engagement in positive interventions. J. Positive Psychol. 9(5), 428–434 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Patterson, D.: 3D spirals, bubbles and sliders: setting range values in multi-user 3D environments. In: Proceedings of the Australasian Computer Science Week Multiconference, pp. 49–59. ACM (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Patterson, D., Costain, S.: The effectiveness of transient user interface components. In: Proceedings of the 16th Australasian User Interface Conference (AUIC 2015), vol. 27, pp. 30–39 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Della-Bosca, D., Patterson, D., Costain, S.: Fractal complexity in built and game environments. In: Pisan, Y., Sgouros, N.M., Marsh, T. (eds.) ICEC 2014. LNCS, vol. 8770, pp. 167–172. Springer, Heidelberg (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Patterson, D.: 3D space: special project in advanced computer environments. Bond University (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Patterson, D.: Using interactive 3D game play to make complex medical knowledge more accessible. Procedia Comput. Sci. 29, 354–363 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Patterson, D.: 3D orientation aids to assist re-orientation and reduce disorientation in mobile apps. In: Proceedings of the 16th Australasian User Interface Conference (AUIC 2015), vol. 27 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dale Patterson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Cite this paper

Patterson, D. (2016). Design for Happiness - Positive Psychology Through Social Media Games. In: Marsh, T., Ma, M., Oliveira, M., Baalsrud Hauge, J., Göbel, S. (eds) Serious Games. JCSG 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9894. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45841-0_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45841-0_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-45840-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-45841-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics