"Appreciation Ally" is a mobile application designed to improve mental health through positive reinforcement and gratitude exercises. This app draws inspiration from psychological research and previous applications like "Psych Me Up." The objective is to create an engaging, interactive game that encourages users to focus on positive imagery, promoting a sense of gratitude and well-being.
Research has demonstrated that purposefully focusing on positive stimuli can promote improved mental health using brain plasticity (e.g., Schneider and Elke, 2022). Positive affirmations are one example of how psychotherapists have encouraged clients to engage in positive thinking. Thinking of three things a day that make one grateful is another technique. Previously, an app called Psych Me Up (pictured left) was available for mental health clinicians to prescribe to their clients. Still, this app has not been updated and is no longer available despite its usefulness. The current project will endeavor to create a new, even more accessible, and flexible game for mental health clinicians to prescribe for depression and low self-esteem.
Like Psych Me Up, Appreciation Ally will provide players with a grid of possible options to touch. Whereas Psych Me Up provided images of faces, with one smiling face on the entire grid; Appreciation Alley will provide a variety of images (e.g., mountains, water, trees, games) that players be grateful for and challenge players to touch the image that "makes them feel the most appreciative." In this way there is no wrong answer, rather, the player is simply challenged to identify the image that makes them feel the best as quickly as possible. This process will continue for 10-12 total grids after which a final time (score) is provided. All of the images used are gathered through research of children ages 10-13 (i.e., appreciation survey).