Therapeutic videogames

[la1]

Hi, my name is Laura and I am a postgraduate psychology student at the University of Bristol conducting research on attitudes towards the use of videogames designed/modified for mental health treatments, including for anxiety.

It is my aim to identify some of the concerns about and perceived benefits of using therapeutic videogames. I hope that this will enable these concerns to be addressed and these benefits to be built upon, so that it can become a more appealing and effective treatment option.

Anyone over 18 years is eligible for the survey (as therapeutic videogames can be used for a variety of different reasons) but as it may have a lot of potential for anxiety treatment I am really hoping to include the views of people who have anxiety.

I would really appreciate if you could please spend 10 minutes on this completely anonymous survey. To access the survey please copy and paste this: gsoe.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/attitudes-towards-the-use-of-therapeutic-videogames

Thank you!

[venusbluejeans]

Just completed your survey but found it a little difficult answing this question...

If you were experiencing a difficult period in your life how likely would you be to seek help from the following?

the reason being for some of the answered I really needed a neutral answer like neither likely or unlikely.

and a few questions.....How much would you associate the following with.... I felt I could have done with a not sure option.

Good luck with your study

[MyNameIsTerry]

Completed it.

I think it would be easier if the 1-9's had a text legend e.g. very likely, less likely, etc or at least a legend at point 1, mid point & point 9 as this is a wide scale and you don't really know the difference between them all. It just allows for a bit less guess work, so better results for you.

One big issue is what these games really are. I can't say I know of them so perhaps some form of example of what they do would help people understand them better to get you some better results in the survey?

[la1]

Hi venusbluejeans, thank you very much for taking the time to complete the survey and for your feedback. I take your point on the 'neither likely or unlikely'. It was a conscious decision not to give a 'don't know' option, but I can appreciate how that could make it difficult to answer some of the questions - sorry for that but thank you for completing it despite that. I'l definitely bare those points in mind for the future!

---------- Post added at 22:08 ---------- Previous post was at 22:03 ----------

Hi MyNameIsTerry, thank you for completing it and for your feedback.

I think you've raised a very good point about the example. I had considered that but decided not to as there are such a wide range of types of videogames that can be used, reasons for using them and ways of using them - and felt that providing an example or examples would probably not encompass all of these and therefore might limit participants' perceptions of when therapeutic videogames could be used or when/what they would be effective for. I was hoping that the explanation of therapeutic videogames would be enough without providing an example(s).

However, maybe the wide uses just reinforces the need for examples.

I think that most people are not overly familiar with the idea and I can see why examples would help to clarify some of the uses but I was looking largely at how people would initial feel about them, for instance if someone suggested using one how a person might initially feel without/before looking into it further.

I appreciate the feedback and will put further thought into it.