Literature Review
In our project, we are using “mental health” and “emotional health” interchangeably. Emotional level comprising depression, anxiety, and stress of the participants was measured by Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS; S. H. Lovibond & P. F. Lovibond, 1995) which is a 21-item scale with 7 item for each mental health component. Depression component of the scale measures dysphoria, hopelessness, devaluation of life, among others. Anxiety component on the other hand measures autonomic arousal, situational anxiety, subjective experience of anxious effect, and so on. Lastly, the stress component measures difficulty in relaxing, nervous arousal, and irritability, among others. The items are scored using a 4-point Likert scale from not applying to oneself to almost always applies to oneself over the past week. On the other hand, the self-esteem of our participants was measured using Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale. It is a 10-item 4-point Likert scale that reflects the values of how one views himself in terms of selfesteem and self-worth.
According to Antony, Bieling, Cox, Enns, and Swinson (1998), this shorter version of the 42-item DASS has certain psychometric properties. In summary, DASS-21 is a reliable and valid scale to measure the three components of emotional distress. They find that the intenal consistency and concurrent validity of the scale as being in the ranges of acceptable to excellent. According to Mahmoud, Hall, and Staten (n.d.), the psychometric properties of DASS-21 are as follows: Internal consistency measured by Cronbach’s alpha is .90 for Depression, .83 for Anxiety, .86 for Stress. This DASS-21 has been used by previous literature, among them is the study of using DASS across Asian in comparison to Western culture by Oei, Sawang, Goh, and Mukhtar (2013). According to them, rigorous statistical tests are done to minimise any potential confounds from the demographic information. As a result, they found that a shorter version of DASS-21, which is DASS-18, comprising 3 fewer items, has more advantages in regards to Asian culture as there are differences in emotional experience and expression (for example, Asians tend to hold more collectivistic values compared to more individualistic Westerners). However, in this project, due to technical limitations, we proceeded with using the standard DASS-21, which is still reliable and valid for our interest.
The measurement of self-esteem is a much discussed about issue in Psychology where it can be dated back to the 19th century. Researches have been proposing a wide range of self-esteem measures since decades ago. Besides the numerous self-report scales, there are pictorial measures for children (Harter, 1985), peer ratings (Demo, 1985), self-ideal discrepancy measures (Block & Robins, 1993), and reaction time measures (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) among many others. However, most researchers rely on self-report scales. Of these, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) (Rosenberg, 1965), which is the scale that we have used for this study, is by far the most widely used (Blascovich & Tomaka, 1991) therefore it can be regarded as a valid and reliable measure of self-worth globally.
Research Methodology
Variables
The independent variable (IV) is the positive intervention using Graphic Interchange Format (GIF), images, and written jokes (puns). The dependent variables (DV) are the scores of the DASS-21 and Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale of the IIUM students.
Participants
Participants will be from the IIUM student population from all 4 levels of study. There are 40 participants from 5 Kulliyahs: KIRKHS, KENMS, KOE, AIKOL, and KOED. From each Kulliyah, there are 8 participants where each level of study (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4) is represented by 1 male and 1 female.
Instruments
Instruments that are involved in the experiment are Google Form, WhatsApp, GIF, images, and written jokes (puns).
Instruments of Intervention
GIF
Day 1
Images
Image for Day 2
Image for Day 4
Image for day 5
Image for Day 7
Written Jokes (Puns)
Procedure
All 40 participants were added in a WhatsApp group and a questionnaire made via Google Form containing the 2 scales, DASS-21 and Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, was sent in the group. Due to us having to conduct a dependent sample t-test, it was required for us to test the participants twice for us to compare the means of two related groups to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between these means. Seven days after completing the questionnaire for the first time, we sent the same set of questionnaire again for the participants to answer. Within the 7 days, we posted an item as a pleasant or positive stimulus (GIF, images, written jokes) in the WhatsApp group each day as part of the intervention method.
Statistical Hypotheses
Depression, Anxiety, and Stress (DASS)
DASS before positive treatment = μ1
DASS after positive treatment = μ2
H0 : There will be an equal or increase in the means of DASS scores.
H0 : μ1 ≤ μ2
H1: There will be a significant decrease in the DASS scores.
H1 : μ1 > μ2
Self Esteem (SE)
SE before positive treatment = μ1
SE after positive treatment = μ2
H0 : There will be an equal or decrease in the means of SE scores.
H0 : μ1 ≥ μ2
H1: There will be a significant increase in the SE scores.
H1 : μ1 < μ2