Date
5-12-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
Stress is an inevitable part of human life that can have both physical and mental repercussions if left to simmer. The purpose of this project was to make a simple game-like application that will be at least as effective at relieving stress as other games referenced in my research below. To accomplish this, I took common ideas known to relieve stress and designed a game that incorporates them, programming the game in Java. Then, to test the effectiveness of the created game, I had several subjects fill out a questionnaire about their stress levels and took their blood pressure. One group was tasked with playing the game I had specifically designed to de-stress them, the second group did a relaxing breathing exercise, and a third group played Tetris. The groups were then compared by their differences in stress levels. It is my hope that this experiment will provide insight into what helps relieve stress. As stress is a common part of people's lives, finding a simple way to remove such an ailment would be beneficial to a great number of people. Although the created game was not as successful relieving stress as the researched games, the experiment provided insight into changes that could be made to make a game more effective at relieving stress.
Department
Computer Science
Thesis Comittee
John Santore (Thesis Director)
Seikyung Jung
Laura Gross
Copyright and Permissions
Original document was submitted as an Honors Program requirement. Copyright is held by the author.
Recommended Citation
Mercer, Nicole. (2015). Stress Relieving Video Games: Creating a Game for the Purpose of Stress Relief and Analyzing Its Effectiveness. In BSU Honors Program Theses and Projects. Item 108. Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/honors_proj/108
Copyright © 2015 Nicole Mercer