Freeman et al 2003 (VR)
KEY STUDY: Schizophrenia
CONTEXT:
Persecutory thoughts – Thinking someone is trying to hurt/ target you even when there is no evidence
proving it.
Eg. *Someone glanced at you* “Oh, I think this person doesn’t like me”.
Ideas of reference – Thinking random events that happened might be related to you even with no
evidence. (Interpretations that are meaning to you but is not related to you)
Eg. *Someone is laughing* “They are probably laughing about me” or *Someone left you on read* “I’ve
probably done something wrong or they hate me”.
Interpersonal Sensitivity - Describes how strongly a person reacts to a social interaction. (Worrying
about other’s opinions, taking things personally, strong reaction to criticism)
Eg. Overthinking over a text because you might think it sounds weird, feeling hurt over small criticism,
someone goes quiet and you think it’s because you did something they dislike.
Freeman states that VR will become very useful to help people interact more
effectively in everyday life.
As people using VR will know that the characters (avatars)/ setting is not real, yet
they still act like it was real life. (That is why they use highly controlled
environments like VR to conduct studies).
He thinks that understanding cognitive and emotional processes will help
develop a treatment by seeing how participants feel about the avatars and how
they interpret their own behaviours.
AIM/ HYPOTHESIS:
To see if neutral/ non-threatening avatars can create persecutory thoughts in
people with no previous clinical diagnosis.
If it is more common in people with higher paranoia and emotional distress.
KEY STUDY: Schizophrenia
CONTEXT:
Persecutory thoughts – Thinking someone is trying to hurt/ target you even when there is no evidence
proving it.
Eg. *Someone glanced at you* “Oh, I think this person doesn’t like me”.
Ideas of reference – Thinking random events that happened might be related to you even with no
evidence. (Interpretations that are meaning to you but is not related to you)
Eg. *Someone is laughing* “They are probably laughing about me” or *Someone left you on read* “I’ve
probably done something wrong or they hate me”.
Interpersonal Sensitivity - Describes how strongly a person reacts to a social interaction. (Worrying
about other’s opinions, taking things personally, strong reaction to criticism)
Eg. Overthinking over a text because you might think it sounds weird, feeling hurt over small criticism,
someone goes quiet and you think it’s because you did something they dislike.
Freeman states that VR will become very useful to help people interact more
effectively in everyday life.
As people using VR will know that the characters (avatars)/ setting is not real, yet
they still act like it was real life. (That is why they use highly controlled
environments like VR to conduct studies).
He thinks that understanding cognitive and emotional processes will help
develop a treatment by seeing how participants feel about the avatars and how
they interpret their own behaviours.
AIM/ HYPOTHESIS:
To see if neutral/ non-threatening avatars can create persecutory thoughts in
people with no previous clinical diagnosis.
If it is more common in people with higher paranoia and emotional distress.
