FINAL EVALUATE REPORT
Research Question and Design Brief
How can we create a psychotherapeutic paradigm in contemporary media that resonates with Generation Z's zeitgeist and that they can place their trust in?
The main objective of this report is to explore and design a new artistic paradigm that contributes to the mental health of Gen-Z and is in tune with the zeitgeists of their era.
The project is guided by Carl Jung's theories of the psychology of religion and the group subconscious, drawing on the religious ritualism of 'confession to a priest in its form, critically deconstructing traditional religious authority in its content, and combining it with the immersive sensory experience technologies of the internet age, it seeks to create a virtual safe space for self-healing/meditation/confession for Gen-Z while documenting iterations and new findings in the design and intervention process.
Meet the Cyber-Empath and enter the Cyber Confessional:
https://sites.google.com/view/cyber-empath/
According to a McKinsey survey in 2022, during the long-term COVID-19 epidemic, Gen-Z reported higher rates of mental health issues than any other age group.
Gen-Z refers to a group of people born between the late 1990s and 2010, the first generation to live online and in the real world from birth. This pattern of life has shaped their worldview and interpersonal habits. McKinsey's survey data is consistent with this, when Gen-Z feel they need mental health support, they will not turn to traditional psychotherapists, instead relying on social media and online applications, some of them think that traditional mental health agencies charge too much, and others said they can't trust psychotherapists.
As a member of Gen-Z, I realized it is a need to develop more solutions that match this generation's preferences and personalities.
2. Research Process and Methodology
2.1 Assumptions and Ethics Statement
This project begins with the assumption that every emotion has value, that negative emotions are normal psychological reactions, and that it is the way people face and deal with these emotions that matters.
In this research, all participants in each interview/intervention/focused group /action research were informed of the objectives of the research and participated voluntarily, consent was obtained for all data that was recorded and analyzed. As the data collected on psychological issues topic may touch the privacy of the participants, therefore all personal details of the participants will be kept confidential.
2.2 Research Approach
Using only qualitative or quantitative research methods has its limitations, and this report has chosen to use a mixed research approach. As the stakeholders in this report are a relatively large target group, the sample size of data from individual questionnaires is simply not sufficient to support an objective analysis of the stakeholder group in this report, so this report has chosen to collect data from McKinsey & Company's database for the past two years for quantitative analysis and combine this data to design a qualitative analysis including interviews/focus groups/action research.
1)The First Intervention and Focus Group Action Research
According to the assumptions mentioned before and much literature on art therapy and narrative therapy, I designed the first intervention.
The intervention was a Gen-Z focus group discussion to combine behavior analysis. The intervention took place in a relaxed environment, starting with a free discussion of their perceptions of 'negative emotions. Next, the focus group played a psychometric warm-up game. Finally, I asked them to choose the art tools they wanted to use to create "a negative thing they have done" and "a negative thing they have encountered". The group members made guesses about each other art creations. The most unexpected reward of the intervention was my own reaction, I said a thing that I regretted and had never told anyone before, I cried when I am saying it and felt lighter inside after saying it, which made me feel more confident about the meaning and conduct of the project.
Stakeholder Feedback and Analysis of Findings
I received some thought-provoking feedback from a female participant who said that although I had designed the experience to be light-hearted enough, she still chose to describe the shallow degree of negative emotion because the participants were people she knew in real life she was concerned about the impact on her social image. This feedback was the key event that prompted me to revise the brief. I realized that the new art form should be a private and safe environment that is digital and free from social relationships so that it can truly create a space to explore shadows and release the self.
2)Turning point and Qualitative Research
Structure Interviews with the Clergy
The feedback I received from the stakeholders during the first intervention reminded me of the ritual of people confessing to a priest in Western religious cultures. In front of the priest, the confessor can be very honest about the negative parts of themselves. This interested me, so I went to two different churches and had interviews with two of the clergy. The purpose of the interview was to find out how the clergy themselves felt as the subject of receiving emotions. They told me that they often felt tired due to receiving too much negativity, and this interview gave the project a new turning point. Bringing my attention to the emotional receivers and led me to think about how to create a digital art paradigm in conjunction with contemporary media to iterate on this traditional situation.
Unstructured Interviewed with Gen-Z
The exploration took place in a focus group of four Generation Zs from different cultural backgrounds (American, British, Chinese, Spanish), in order to ask their views on the form of 'confession to a priest and the new technologies I would incorporate to iterate it. Two of them said they were interested in this form because they had often seen it in films.
When I asked them if they had ever gone to church to do this ritual, they both replied that they had not, as neither of them had a religious belief. One of the interviewees made an interesting point about the advent of the internet age as a 'disenchantment' of the religious mystique. Pleasantly, they were all interested in my proposal to iterate on this traditional approach by incorporating new technologies, as it not only fits in with the habits of Generation Z, but also takes some of the pressure off emotional receivers such as priests and psychologists.
3)Literature Review and Secondary Research
Carl Jung's theory of the psychology of religion states that he realized the power of religion in the subconscious of the group under the verification of the large number of clinical cases he treated, and he also believed that religious rituals actually had a protective effect on the mind because of the possibility of not suffering the impact of "direct experience".
And according to a survey by McKinsey in 2018, Generation Z is also highly receptive to religious institutions, but this generation's attitude towards faith is a combination of a high value on personal identity, a rejection of stereotypes, and a degree of pragmatism; they are an attitude of taking the best and leaving the worst behind. These secondary researches help me to define the "Cyber Empath" project's main concept.
3. Outcome Design Process and Expert Feedback
The outcome product of this project is a website and an interactive video, the design process of which included but was not limited to:
- Cyber-Empath's and Cyber Confessional’s concept /image /website /poster /event /interactive video design.
- Started a cyber confessional social media Instagram account with the aim of turning it into a community where young people can help and enlighten each other in the future.
- An event in the school quiet capsule and interviews with ten stakeholders from different cultural backgrounds.
- Ask for feedback from experts in the relevant field of digital art, psychology, and narrative environment design.
Conclusion
For my project, I believe Generation Z is the next generation of social stalwarts, and this report argues that projects to improve Generation Z's mental health by designing products and services with a tailored intergenerational approach are undeniably worthwhile and will generate social and economic returns in the future.
And the major limitation of the present project is the current technology. My desired idea for this project is to make it a sensory immersive virtual meditation space where people would need to wear earphones and VR glasses to experience the virtual space landscape and listen to soothing ASMR white noise to engage in self-talk and self-meditation. However, my current technology does not allow for such a display like this, and the only way to achieve a sufficient level of immersion is to tell stakeholders about my concept through a four-minute interactive video and to find a suitable quiet, dark place - such as a quiet capsule in a school - for the presentation.
As a researcher, this project has allowed me to discover my strengths, especially in Unit 3, where I have become more and more clear about my project goals and how to work with the mindset taught in our major. I think that this action research mindset combined with my previous creativity and design skills will certainly broaden the depth and breadth of my thinking in future life. However, during the research process of the project, I also identified many of my own weaknesses, such as time management skills and the ability to focus. Divergent thinking is a double-edged sword. It is good for finding ideas, but if put too much energy into divergent areas in the process of implementing a project, it will waste the energy of accomplishing the current goal, and I will continue to improve in the future.
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