KS Freeman VR

• Methodology


  • Correlational study
  • Based on quantitative data gathered via questionnaires
• Sample


  • 12 male and 12 female
  • Paid volunteers
  • Mean age-26
  • Recruited from University College, London, UK
  • All mentally well
  • 21 students
  • 3 administrative staff
• Paranoia score


  Mean of 31.8 (min score 20, max 100), with no significant difference between male and females
• Participant agreement with statements from the 15-item VR-Paranoia questionnaire


  • Someone in the room had it for me (Disagree 15, Agree a little 3, Moderately agree 3, Totally agree 2)
  • They were talking about me behind my back (Disagree 11, Agree a little 9)
  • They were friendly towards me (Disagree 10)
• Items in the VR-Paranoia questionnaire

  • They were hostile towards me.
  • They would have harmed me in some way if they could.
  • Someone in the room had it in for me.
  • They were trying to make me distressed.
  • They had bad intentions towards me.
  • They were talking about me behind my back.
  • They were pleasant people.
  • They were trustworthy.
  • They had kind intentions towards me.
  • I felt very safe in their company.
  • They were saying negative things about me to each other.
  • They were watching me.
  • They were looking at me critically.
  • They were laughing at me.
  • They were friendly towards me.
• Ethics


  • Participants gave consent
  • Participants had the right to withdraw
  • Participants were debriefed
• Participants who scored high in anxiety/interpersonal sensitivity


  May be somewhat distressed by these outcomes
• A full and thorough debrief would be essential in order to protect the participants from harm
• Application to daily life

  • Helps deepen understanding of cognitive and emotional processes that underpin development of psychotic symptoms
• Exploring how people interpret mental states/intentions in others

  In VR settings
• Development of new VR therapies

  Where people can focus on developing new ways of interacting in the real world
• VR environments


  • Need strong ecological validity (e.g. incorporating credible avatars that demonstrate a full range of human behaviors)
• A range of questionnaires were used to measure trait anxiety, paranoia and other clinical symptoms (e.g. The Spielberger State Anxiety Questionnaire)
• Individual explanations


  Certain people are more vulnerable to developing psychotic symptoms due to the way they typically process information from the social and physical world
• Experimental manipulation of aspects of the virtual environment


  Could help to identify factors which make such thoughts more or less likely
• Idiographic


  Qualitative data collected through asking participants to explain their experiences in their own words in semi-structured interviews
• Nomothetic


  Quantitative data collected using the VR-Paranoia questionnaire, collected self-reported data on a 4-point scales (0-3: 'do not agree' to 'totally agree") which can be analysed using statistics in order to draw conclusions that can be generalised to the wider target population