The role of values & practical identities in mental wellbeing

More than 300 million people in the world suffer from depression. While traditional psychotherapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) continue to be effective for treating depression, a newer therapy known as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has surfaced in recent decades that employs mindfulness and values-based techniques, inter alia, not explicitly targeted in CBT. Significantly influenced by ACT, this thesis offers a direct, externalized means by which individuals can interact with their value systems. Specifically, I present Psyche - a novel computer-based psychological intervention that is designed to help individuals not only better understand what they value but also better align their actions with their values. This thesis posits that such intentionality vis-à-vis our values will improve mental wellbeing. A two-week randomized controlled trial conducted on 29 participants compared Psyche (mind mapping one's value system) to an active control task (journaling). Both groups performed similarly for every therapeutic outcome measure. Given the fact that journaling is widely held to be therapeutically efficacious on its own and that the trial was a short two-week trial, the findings were encouraging. In addition to examining Psyche through the lens of therapeutic efficacy, I assess its ability to engage users.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Yan, Alan,S.M.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Tamar Schapiro and Rosalind W. Picard.

• Engineering and Management Program.
• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122314

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122314