Freeman et al. (2008)

Question 1

Virtual reality (VR)

Answer 1

Involves using technology for presenting different social environments to the user, has been used successfully in treatment for other disorders such as social phobia.

Question 2

Context

Answer 2

It has been found that avatars can trigger emotions, Freeman wanted to know how people interpret their behaviour.

He believes by researching this, it can lead to new ways of diagnosing/treating schizophrenia.

Question 3

Aim/hypothesis

Answer 3

• To investigate the extent to which neutral, non-threatening avatars provoke persecutory thoughts in people with no previous clinical diagnoses.

People with higher levels of paranoia and emotional distress are more likely to experience persectutory ideation.

Question 4

Method

Answer 4

Correlational study.

Question 5

Participants

Answer 5

• 21 mentally healthy university students.
• 3 administrative staff.
• Average age of 26 years-old.
• From a London, UK university.

Question 6

Sampling

Answer 6

Ppts were recruited using volunteer sampling, where ppts responded to an advertisement at the University College London.

Question 7

At the start of the study, what did the questionnaires assess about the ppts?

Answer 7

Mood, anxiety and paranoia.

Question 8

What were ppts told about the VR?

What were they tasked with doing whilst in the VR?

Answer 8

They were told they would encounter avatars in a VR library and should ‘form an impression’ of them.

Question 9

How long did ppts spend in the VR?

Answer 9

5 minutes.

Question 10

Where was the VR setting?

Answer 10

A library.

Question 11

Following the VR, what did ppts do?

Answer 11

Answer the questionnaires again, as well as a newly designed measure of situation-specific paranoia.

Question 12

What happened before ppts left?

Answer 12

They were interviewed about their VR experience.

Interviews were filmed and a clinical psychologist rated levels of persecutory ideation.

Question 13

How many avatars were in each scene?

What did they do?

Answer 13

3 avatars, they occasionally showed ambiguous behaviour, such as smiling, looking, talking to each other etc.

Question 14

Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI)

Answer 14

A 53-item self-report measure designed to assess 9 symptoms.

The symptoms included: interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility and psychoticism.

Question 15

What percentage of ppts agreed at least a little with the negative beliefs?

What is an example of a negative belief?

Answer 15

46% agreed at least a little.

Example: ‘They were talking about me behind my back’.

Question 16

Was the mean paranoia score high or low?

Answer 16

Relatively low.

Question 17

Did the majority of patients have positive or negative opinions about the avatars?

Answer 17

Majority had positive beliefs, but some had ideas of persecution.

Question 18

What was there a significant correlation between?

Answer 18

Scores on the paranoia questionnaire and the paranoia score given based on the interview.

Question 19

What was VR persecutory ideation positively correlated with?

Answer 19

Paranoia, interpersonal sensitivity and anxiety.

Question 20

Conclusions

Answer 20

Anxiety contributes directly to the development of persecutory ideation.

VR is a promising tool for research and patient assessment/therapy.

Question 21

Strengths

Answer 21

• Quantitative data = could be scored objectively and statistics used to draw conclusions.
• Reliable = standardisation of the VR experience made the procedure replicable.
• Ethical = ppts had right to withdraw and gave consent.

Question 22

Criticisms

Answer 22

• Validity = low levels of presence with the virtual library, ppts were only in there for 5 minutes.
• Subjectivity = interviews were rated by one observer who could have been biased.

Question 23

How does Freeman demonstrate situational/individual explanations?

Answer 23

Looked at how persecutory ideation can be affected by situations, such as being in the VR environment with avatars.

Also that people with higher levels of trait anxiety may be more likely to have persecutory ideation.