Significant progress made today on all the paperwork to submit for approval from the Eastern Washington University (EWU) Instituational Review Board (IRB) to proceed with the study "Efficacy Assessment of Role-playing Games as an Instructional Technique within the Constraints of a University Academic Setting from the Neuropsychology Perspective".
This is really more of a template/pilot for a future improved study, and heavily constrained by current timeline and resources available. There are a ton of confounds due to the limited resources, but the design of this study includes documents to take into considerations approaches for creating a much improved version of this study in the future, pending available resources down the road.
The ideal version of this study would have multiple educational and testing sessions rather than just one educational session (ideally a 10-16 week period comparable to typical quarterly/semester course time period), larger body of knowledge, large sample sizes, many different instructors, many GMI lead RPG groups, far better controls and blinding. better apples to apples comparison (small class size to small game room size, large class size to large game group size, etc.), sefveral different classroom conditions (large classroom/auditorium lecture, small classroom (5 students 1 instructor), online learning, large RPG classroom, small RPG classroom, TRPG vs LARP vs CRPG vs SABM, and other settings). But due to the constraints required to fit this within the June 15th deadline, only 2 groups tested (standard classroom versus RPG classroom).
Here is some of the information still in draft form, but nearly ready for submission (there are dozens of other documents related to this project, but these are the portions of interest for the IRB and summarizing the plan):
PURPOSE: Assess if the constraints of a large class-size college course, eliminate or reduce the advantages of role-playing games as an educational technique over classical education techniques. Existing research indicates that the use of role-playing can enhance the learning process. Further research also supports that tabletop role-playing games can also further enhance the learning process. Most university-level academic settings do not have the luxury of resources to provide this educational technique for the majority of students. Most of the existing research using RPGs in educational settings has not been performed in standard college-level university settings with large class sizes, limited number of instructors, limited instructor-student interaction, etc.
Neuroscience theories support the possible reasons for RPG advantages to learning, since RPG’s provide deep-level processing, “why questions”, elaboration, distinctiveness, interconnectedness, often prior knowledge components, stressors similar to the testing effect and desirable difficulties, rich mental imagery, abundant cues for encoding & retrieval, knowledge in layers, gamification aspects tend to increase intrinsic motivation and interest, and the narrative core component, theoretically explain why research studies indicate that TRPGs provide significant advantages over standard lecture & rote techniques, especially for longer-term memory and creative applications of acquired knowledge.
Most of the research for RPGs related to education has been in elementary, high school, or adjunct/extracurricular settings allowing the more natural RPG environment to optimize the experience. Research indicates the optimal TRPG experience is around 4-5 players with 1 game master (GM), over a 3-4 hour period at least once per week, in a comfortable & quiet setting. Most academic settings do not have the luxury of resources to provide this form of educational technique on such a small group scale for the majority of students.
METHODOLOGY: Participants will be randomly assigned to either a typical classroom setting or tabletop role-playing setting to learn East Asian History material over a 3 hour course of instruction. Prior to the course they will complete a basic demographics questionnaire and baseline subject knowledge test about related East Asian History topics. They will then attend the 3 hour course. They will be subsequently tested on their comprehension and retention of information through a standard written and/or online (multiple choice, fill in the blank, etc.) course test immediately at the end of the course, and then retested a few days/weeks later to determine longer term retention.
Participants will be using coded identification (SONA), and if in classroom setting using randomly assigned nicknames, to protect anonymity. Participants will complete a basic demographics survey and baseline knowledge test on East Asian History related topics. Then be randomly assigned to 1 of 2 classroom/instruction environments/techniques: The two settings are either: standard classroom or role-playing game classroom course. Participants in classrooms will receive random nicknames to maintain anonymity during course instruction. Course instruction approximately 3 hours. Course material test immediately at course ending. Course material delayed retest several days to week(s) after course. Exit survey about course & experiment experience. There is a slight deception in that the participants initially are only told the study is on “Assessing Different Educational Techniques”, and omits the focus on assessing RPGs to reduce potential initial participant response bias. Participants are informed at the end of participation about the full title and scope of the study.
The classroom assigned group will be in a standard classroom with student desks, projector, and instructor providing verbal lecture, potentially with a slide show. Students are assigned alias nicknames in case they need to interact with the instructor to ask/answer questions during the course of the lecture.
At a separate time from the classroom assigned group, the RPG group(s) members will be in a room seated around a single boardroom style table. Group size will be no larger than 5 players plus the Game Master Instructor (GMI). If there are too many participants then multiple RPG group sessions will be scheduled to accommodate. Multiple groups would help improve data value. The GMI will cover the same lecture material as the classroom setting, but using a gamified narrative approach using a standard published tabletop role-playing game (AD&D 1st Edition Oriental Adventures game system). Players will be given a choice of player characters (PCs - the characters that the players will control within the game setting) to pick from. Participants will work cooperatively with each other while they play through the narrative game setting within the 3 hours, attempting to learn the information relevant to the course material. Players and GMI will use the names of the player characters to reference each other and maintain anonymity. All interactions are verbal, while seated around table. Participants will have character sheets, pencils with erasers, a set of polyhedral game dice. The GMI will be the instructor, narrator, referee, and performer of the non-player characters (NPCs) that the PCs will interact with verbally to unravel clues, overcome challenges, and learn the appropriate information relevant to the East Asian History course.
The online version of this article can be found at:
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/25/4/1043
Virtual environments enable people to experience extra
ordinary identities or circumstances. People can take on
superhero or super-villain roles using digital avatars in
virtual space. By acting as these avatars, individuals may
learn new behaviors and model their own, real-life
behaviors after them (Bandura, 1977; Bem, 1972). The
virtual environment is, thus, a vehicle for observation,
imitation, and modeling; players’ avatars may fuel these
processes.
Recent empirical research confirms that the behavior
of players’ avatars can affect players’ self-concepts, cogni
tions, and feelings (Gentile et al., 2009; Greitemeyer &
Osswald, 2010). Thus, concepts related to avatar behav
iors in general (e.g., fighting against evil) or to particular
avatars (e.g., Superman) may affect subsequent behavior
(e.g., good deeds). Identification with an avatar is corre
lated with avatar-consistent behavior in the real world
(Rosenberg, Baughman, & Bailenson, 2013). In the exper
iments reported here, we investigated whether certain
types of avatars and avatars’ behaviors could promote
pro- or antisocial actions in everyday behavior.
Experiment 1
One hundred ninety-four undergraduates participated in
the experiment (95 males, 99 females; mean age = 20.34
years, SD = 2.10). Participants were told that they were
involved in two separate studies: a test of game usability
and a blind tasting test. After signing a consent form, par
ticipants were randomly assigned to heroic (Superman),
villainous (Voldemort), and neutral geometric-shaped (cir
cle) avatars. They then played a game for 5 min in which
they battled enemies as their avatar (see the Supplemental
Material available online for further descriptions of the
stimuli and the game). Participants’ identification with their
avatars was measured using four items (e.g., “While you
were playing the game, how much did you identify with
your avatar?”; Cronbach’s α = .75), each of which they
responded to on a 7-point scale ranging from 1, not at all,
to 7, very much. Then they were told that the first study
was over.
Participants were then informed that a blind taste test
of food additives would take place and were asked to sign
another consent form.1 We manipulated good and bad
action by asking participants to first taste and then give
either chocolate or chili sauce, respectively (Fischer,
Kastenmüller, & Greitemeyer, 2010), to a (fictional) future
participant. Participants were instructed to pour an
unspecified amount of food into a plastic dish (“to allow
the experimenter to be blind to experimental conditions”)
and were told that the future participant would consume
all of the food provided. The total amount poured was
measured in grams. As a manipulation check, we asked
participants to rate the valence of giving chili sauce or
chocolate to a subsequent participant on scales ranging
from 1, bad, to 7, good; 1, unpleasant, to 7, pleasant; and
1, unfavorable, to 7, favorable (Cronbach’s α = .97).
Participants’ identification with their avatars did not
differ significantly among conditions, F(2, 191) = 1.83,
p = .16, η 2 = .02 (hero: M = 3.90, SD = 1.30; villain: M =
p3.54, SD = 1.19; circle: M = 3.88, SD = 1.38). The bad
action (giving chili sauce; M = 1.82, SD = 0.70) was rated
more negatively than the good action (giving chocolate;
M = 5.33, SD = 0.89), t(192) = 30.42, p < .001, d = 4.40.
More important, a 3 (avatar: heroic vs. villainous vs.
neutral) × 2 (behavior: good vs. bad) analysis of variance
(ANOVA) revealed the predicted interaction effect, F(2,
188) = 35.91, p < .001, η 2 = .28, but no main effects, Fs <
p.37, ps > .16. Participants who played the heroic avatar
gave more chocolate than those who played the villain
ous or neutral avatars (see Fig. 1a). Conversely, partici
pants who played villains poured more chili sauce than
Corresponding Author:
Gunwoo Yoon, Institute of Communications Research, College of
Media, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 810 South Wright
St., Urbana, IL 61801
E-mail: gyoon3@illinois.edu
Psychological Science
http://pss.sagepub.com/
KnowThy Avatar: The Unintended Effect of Virtual-Self Representation on Behavior
Gunwoo Yoon and Patrick T. Vargas
Psychological Science 2014 25: 1043 originally published online 5 February 2014
DOI: 10.1177/0956797613519271
The online version of this article can be found at:
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/25/4/1043
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On behalf of:
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research-article2014
519271
PSSXXX10.1177/0956797613519271Yoon, VargasKnowThyAvatar
Short Report
Psychological Science
Know Thy Avatar: The Unintended Effect of
© 2014, The Vol. Author(s) 25(4) 1043–1045
2014
Virtual-Self Representation Behavior
sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: Reprints 10.1177/0956797613519271
and permissions:
onpss.sagepub.com
Gunwoo Yoon1 and Patrick T. Vargas2
1
Institute of Communications Research, College of Media, and 2Charles H. Sandage Department
of Advertising, College of Media, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Received 10/26/13; Revision accepted 12/11/13
Virtual environments enable people to experience extra
ordinary identities or circumstances. People can take on
superhero or super-villain roles using digital avatars in
virtual space. By acting as these avatars, individuals may
learn new behaviors and model their own, real-life
behaviors after them (Bandura, 1977; Bem, 1972). The
virtual environment is, thus, a vehicle for observation,
imitation, and modeling; players’ avatars may fuel these
processes.
Recent empirical research confirms that the behavior
of players’ avatars can affect players’ self-concepts, cogni
tions, and feelings (Gentile et al., 2009; Greitemeyer &
Osswald, 2010). Thus, concepts related to avatar behav
iors in general (e.g., fighting against evil) or to particular
avatars (e.g., Superman) may affect subsequent behavior
(e.g., good deeds). Identification with an avatar is corre
lated with avatar-consistent behavior in the real world
(Rosenberg, Baughman, & Bailenson, 2013). In the exper
iments reported here, we investigated whether certain
types of avatars and avatars’ behaviors could promote
pro- or antisocial actions in everyday behavior.
Experiment 1
One hundred ninety-four undergraduates participated in
the experiment (95 males, 99 females; mean age = 20.34
years, SD = 2.10). Participants were told that they were
involved in two separate studies: a test of game usability
and a blind tasting test. After signing a consent form, par
ticipants were randomly assigned to heroic (Superman),
villainous (Voldemort), and neutral geometric-shaped (cir
cle) avatars. They then played a game for 5 min in which
they battled enemies as their avatar (see the Supplemental
Material available online for further descriptions of the
stimuli and the game). Participants’ identification with their
avatars was measured using four items (e.g., “While you
were playing the game, how much did you identify with
your avatar?”; Cronbach’s α = .75), each of which they
responded to on a 7-point scale ranging from 1, not at all,
to 7, very much. Then they were told that the first study
was over.
Participants were then informed that a blind taste test
of food additives would take place and were asked to sign
another consent form.1 We manipulated good and bad
action by asking participants to first taste and then give
either chocolate or chili sauce, respectively (Fischer,
Kastenmüller, & Greitemeyer, 2010), to a (fictional) future
participant. Participants were instructed to pour an
unspecified amount of food into a plastic dish (“to allow
the experimenter to be blind to experimental conditions”)
and were told that the future participant would consume
all of the food provided. The total amount poured was
measured in grams. As a manipulation check, we asked
participants to rate the valence of giving chili sauce or
chocolate to a subsequent participant on scales ranging
from 1, bad, to 7, good; 1, unpleasant, to 7, pleasant; and
1, unfavorable, to 7, favorable (Cronbach’s α = .97).
Participants’ identification with their avatars did not
differ significantly among conditions, F(2, 191) = 1.83,
p = .16, η 2 = .02 (hero: M = 3.90, SD = 1.30; villain: M =
p3.54, SD = 1.19; circle: M = 3.88, SD = 1.38). The bad
action (giving chili sauce; M = 1.82, SD = 0.70) was rated
more negatively than the good action (giving chocolate;
M = 5.33, SD = 0.89), t(192) = 30.42, p < .001, d = 4.40.
More important, a 3 (avatar: heroic vs. villainous vs.
neutral) × 2 (behavior: good vs. bad) analysis of variance
(ANOVA) revealed the predicted interaction effect, F(2,
188) = 35.91, p < .001, η 2 = .28, but no main effects, Fs <
p.37, ps > .16. Participants who played the heroic avatar
gave more chocolate than those who played the villain
ous or neutral avatars (see Fig. 1a). Conversely, partici
pants who played villains poured more chili sauce than
Corresponding Author:
Gunwoo Yoon, Institute of Communications Research, College of
Media, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 810 South Wright
St., Urbana, IL 61801
E-mail: gyoon3@illinois.edu
Downloaded from pss.sagepub.com at EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIV on May 26, 2014
1044
Yoon, Vargas
a
20
Chocolate
Chili Sauce
b
16
Heroic Avatar
Villainous Avatar
)
g(detacollAtnuomA16
12
8
4
0
Heroic Avatar
Neutral Avatar
Villainous Avatar
Virtual-Self Representation
)
g(d 12
etacollA 8
ecuaSl i 4
ihC0
Player
Role
Observer
Fig. 1. Results from Experiment 1 (a) and Experiment 2 (b). The graph in (a) shows the mean amount of chocolate and chili sauce given by
participants as a function of the avatar they used. The graph in (b) shows the mean amount of chili sauce given as a function of participants’
role and the avatar they used. Error bars show standard errors of the mean.
did participants who played heroes and neutral avatars
(see the Supplemental Material for further details).
Experiment 2
The design of Experiment 2 was the same as that of
Experiment 1, except that there was an additional set of
conditions to test whether our role-taking manipulation
(i.e., playing as a superhero or villain) generated stronger
real-world outcomes than common behavioral-priming
(e.g., Dijksterhuis et al., 1998) and perspective-taking
(e.g., Galinsky, Wang, & Ku, 2008) manipulations, both of
which lead people to behave in ways consistent with the
target. In order to simplify the experiment, we dropped
the neutral-avatar condition and focused on how much
chili sauce players allotted. Thus, we tested whether
game players (who “were” the heroic or villainous avatar)
would show stronger behavioral effects than observers
(who “were primed with” or “took the perspective of” the
heroic or villainous avatar). Observers were asked to put
themselves in a heroic or villainous avatar’s “shoes” and
to watch a game demonstration for 5 min. All other pro
cedures and measures were identical to those used in
Experiment 1.
One hundred twenty-five undergraduates partici
pated in the experiment (44 males, 81 females; mean
age = 19.42 years, SD = 1.37). A 2 (avatar: heroic vs.
villainous) × 2 (role: player vs. observer) ANOVA on the
amount of chili sauce served yielded a significant main
effect of avatar, F(1, 121) = 48.35, p < .001, η 2 = .29, and
pno effect of role, F(1, 121) < 1, p = .57. As predicted,
villains administered a greater amount of hot chili sauce
than heroes (see the Supplemental Material for further
details). There was a significant interaction effect,
F(1, 121) = 24.17, p < .001, η 2 = .17. Indeed, partici
ppants who played heroes served significantly less chili
sauce than participants who observed heroes, and par
ticipants who played villains served more chili sauce
than participants who observed villains (Fig. 1b; see
the Supplemental Material for further details). AsExperiment 1, “being” an avatar caused participantsbehave in ways that conformed to their avatars, which
caused stronger effects on subsequent behavior than
did priming or perspective taking.
in
to
Discussion
This research not only demonstrates that acting as a hero
or villain causes people to perform coincident behaviors,
but also highlights that role taking facilitates behavior
consistent with the actions of a target above and beyond
the behavior facilitated by priming (Nelson & Norton,
2005). A 5-min gaming experience with certain avatars
is enough to reverse a potential pattern of behavior.
One likely explanation is that immersion (Weinstein,
Przybylski, & Ryan, 2009) or arousal (Berger, 2011)
derived from the gaming experience imbues people with
agency. In Experiment 2, the perspective-taking manipu
lation was almost certainly less arousing than active game
play; perhaps arousal mediates the effect of avatars on
behavior (e.g., arousal facilitates action).2
Human social responses can be altered by how virtual-
self representations are implemented, and those can play
a role in shaping the way people interact with others. In
Downloaded from pss.sagepub.com at EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIV on May 26, 2014
Know Thy Avatar 1045
everyday gaming, players choose their own avatars, but
creating games with more heroic avatars could encour
age more prosocial behavior. By exploring the important
outcome of virtual experiences, this study broadens the
potential of unintended influence of self-representation
derived from role taking on human behavior.
Author Contributions
G. Yoon developed the study concept. G. Yoon and P. T.
Vargas equally contributed to the study design. Data collection
and statistical analyses were performed by G. Yoon and P. T.
Vargas. G. Yoon analyzed and interpreted the data under the
supervision of P. T. Vargas. G. Yoon drafted the manuscript,
and P. T. Vargas provided critical revisions. All authors approved
the final version of the manuscript for submission.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Jesse Preston and members of the Psychology
of Religion, Agency, and Morality Laboratory for their useful
comments.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest with
respect to their authorship or the publication of this article.
Supplemental Material
Additional supporting information may be found at http://pss
.sagepub.com/content/by/supplemental-data
Notes
1. We handed out different consent forms to make the idea of
“two separate studies” more believable. No participants noticed
a connection between the two consecutive studies.
2. We tested mediation effects linking role taking to behavior
through avatar identification. Results from bootstrap analyses
did not support this avatar-identification account. In addition,
there were no significant correlations between avatar identifica
tion and behavior.
References
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bem, D. J. (1972). Self-perception theory. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.),
Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 1–62).
New York, NY: Academic Press.
Berger, J. (2011). Arousal increases social transmission of infor
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Dijksterhuis, A., Spears, R., Postmes, T., Stapel, D., Koomen,
W., van Knippenberg, A., & Scheepers, D. (1998). Seeing
one thing and doing another: Contrast effects in automatic
behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75,
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Fischer, P., Kastenmüller, A., & Greitemeyer, T. (2010). Media
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Galinsky, A. D., Wang, C. S., & Ku, G. (2008). Perspective-
takers behave more stereotypically. Journal of Personality
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Gentile, D. A., Anderson, C. A., Yukawa, S., Ihori, N., Saleem,
M., Ming, L. K., . . . Sakamoto, A. (2009). The effects of pro
social video games on prosocial behaviors: International
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752–763.
Greitemeyer, T., & Osswald, S. (2010). Effects of prosocial
video games on prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 98, 211–221.
Nelson, L. D., & Norton, M. I. (2005). From student to super
hero: Situational primes shape future helping. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 423–430.
Rosenberg, R. S., Baughman, S. L., & Bailenson, J. N. (2013).
Virtual superheroes: Using superpowers in virtual real
ity to encourage prosocial behavior. PLoS ONE, 8(1),
e55003. Retrieved from http://www.plosone.org/article/
info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0055003
Weinstein, N., Przybylski, A. K., & Ryan, R. M. (2009). Can
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Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1315–1329.
ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on a study of biofeedback in a gaming environment incorporating the acquisition
and analysis of physiological data sets in tandem with other behavioral and self-report data sets.
Preliminary results presented here provide some groundwork toward subsequent study in this area, as
more comprehensive and detailed treatments will require further research. The main contribution and
focus of this chapter concerns our experiences in applying methods not typically available to educational
researchers. Our results are promising, though they cannot be taken to be definitive. Further developments
and applications of these methods will lead to more detailed investigations as to what people may
learn or gain from biofeedback in gaming environments, along with interdependencies of biofeedback
and gaming pertaining to affect, motivation, behavior and cognition, and perhaps especially, to learning
anxiety
INTRODUCTION
This chapter reports on a collaboration between the SAGE for Learning project and ENGRAM/ME. ENGRAM/ME (Educational Neuroscience Group for Research into Affect and Mentation / in Mathematics Education, www.engrammetron.net) is a diverse collection of researchers with a special but not restricted emphasis in mathematics education, concerned with augmenting educational research with methods and results from psychophysiology and cognitive neuroscience (Campbell, with the ENL Group, 2007). The central hub for ENGRAM/ ME activities is the ENGRAMMETRON, the second
author’s state-of-the-art educational neuroscience laboratory in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, where the research reported herein was conducted. This study observed, recorded, and analyzed participants’ experiences playing a biofeedbackbased video game called Journey to Wild Divine®. The virtual nature of this game invites players into an interactive realm of seemingly endless
possibilities. This interactive gaming environment, consisting of graphics and music, entices and affects changes in players’ energy levels by encouraging alterations in their breathing rates and levels of relaxation, thereby determining their progression through the game. We hope that this preliminary study will inform future research that can unveil novel educational implications leading to interesting new ways to improve teaching and learning.
BACKGROUND
Biofeedback has been studied for more than 40 years, and has well-established utility. Many of its clinical applications have been identified for quite some time. Biofeedback training has been broadly used as a treatment for addiction, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
autism, and epilepsy. At present, there are more than 1,500 professionals practicing biofeedback
training in hundreds of mental fitness centers in North America. According to the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America (BCIA) (www.bcia.org), there are currently more than 1,000
practitioners with BCIA certification in the U.S. and about 33 in Canada.
Why Learn biofeedback?
Biofeedback is based on direct, immediate feedback to the person about the state of some aspect of his/her body, such as heart rate, respiration rate, or temperature. According to Whitehouse and Turner (2007), biofeedback typically involves the use of electronic equipment to monitor peoples’
internal physiological states and provide them with feedback that consequently helps them learn to
influence those states, “to activate, balance, release or recover from them” (para. 2). Biofeedback
presenting some aspect of an individual’s brain behavior to that individual in real time, using methods such as electroencephalography (EEG), is commonly referred to as neurofeedback. (Note that although we recorded participants’ EEG, neurofeedback was not a part of this study because they were not presented with these data). Biofeedback training has been proven to have a powerful, positive effect on one’s emotional and physical condition through many medical interventions and educational training programs (e.g., see Larsen, 2006). A noted example is the “New York Program,” which demonstrated that a biofeedback program can have a significant positive effect on school and community. This effect has been referred to as “The Ripple Effect” (Biofeedback Consultants, 2008; see also, Imel, Baldwin, Bonus, & MacCoon, 2008). Research has also shown that biofeedback training can be an appropriate and efficacious treatment for children with ADHD (Fuchs, Birbaumer, Lutzenberger, Gruzelier & Kaiser, 2003; Lubar, Swartwood, Swartwood, & O’Donnell, 1995; Warnes & Allen, 2005). Some researchers have further confirmed that biofeedback is an effective way to control anxiety and panic (Plotkin & Rice, 1981; Rice, Blanchard, & Purcell, 1993; Townsend, House, & Addario, 1975) because biofeedback can often be helpful “in stabilizing a nervous system so that it no longer makes excursions into panic” (EEG Spectrum
International Inc., 2007, para. 3). Research also suggests that skills people have developed through biofeedback training can be transferred to daily life after they have developed habitual behaviors, and that they feel comfortable with their new response patterns. So, why learn biofeedback? Research and
accepted practice in this area have shown that biofeedback can provide advantages for people in improving self-control and performance in daily life.
A case is presented of extended character analysis of a person with a schizoid personality. Because of the difficulty in establishing a therapeutic alliance, the therapy was a form of modified play therapy using a game to enhance ego development. A theoretical discussion explores the reasons of this deviation from standard therapy works and its indications for other cases.
This article demonstrates how a young man with an obsessional, schizoid personality was treated by utilizing a fantasy game, Dungeons and Dragons, as a vehicle for releasing his unconscious fantasies. It aims to show how the game may serve to free fears and feelings for useful consciousness with enhanced ego development so as to improve the patient’s ability to interact with others and feel comfortable with himself.
Fred, a 19-year-old, single white college student, had cut both of his wrists in a methodical suicide attempt and had gone into the shower in an effort to prevent the wounds from coagulating. He claimed that he had been depressed for several years, actually since grade school and that he had always been a “loner.” Friendships he did develop were usually short-term and superficial. College, he reported, had been particularly lonely for him and he had done little outside of school work. Yet he could not describe any unusual events or possible precipitants. However he reported that school work, which had been an area of success for him, had lately been going badly.
Fred gave no indication of sleep or appetite disturbance, spontaneous crying spells, depressive dreams, constipation, weight loss or other signs of endogenous depression. He denied any hallucinations or delusions.
Fred grew up in a small town. His father is in the legal profession, “likes his work,” and is very formal and not close at all. The mother is a housewife but is “otherwise a pretty good mother.” He is the second of three brothers. The oldest brother is three years older than Fred and has an undefined physical condition, “a problem with the vessels on one side of his brain” (probably Sturge-Weber syndrome) and is retarded. He stays home, “mooching” off the parents. Fred never got along with his older brother, and he was constantly angry with him because of the extra attention he got from the parents. “They always took my brother’s side in any conflict.” He stated he always got along with his younger brother. Fred was sent to boarding school and was relieved to be away.
He described, with many examples, a history of slights by family and schoolmates and how awful it felt to be known as the brother of a retarded boy. Fred denied any form of homosexual ideation.
The mental status exam showed depressed mood and affect but was otherwise unremarkable. Except for his self-inflicted wounds, his physical exam was entirely within normal limits.
Fred was seen by me in the hospital and later in twice-weekly, 45-minute outpatient sessions in addition to group therapy with different psychiatrists. He was diagnosed as having apparently free-floating depression, and was given desipramine, 150 mg per night.
At first, Fred tended to keep distance from me. He was only involved in treatment superficially but appeared to need assistance in defining life goals for himself. He used intellectualization and other obsessive defenses, but there was also an element of emotional impulsivity.
Fred felt uncomfortable in dealing with male therapists because of the strong angry feelings that were, he said, much like those he had toward his father who had “let him down” in the past.
Fred took a leave of absence from school and worked to support himself. In the first year, much of the therapeutic work was to maintain an alliance, as he had no friends and no social contacts since the suicide attempt. Two attempts of living with roommates ended in his being cheated out of rent twice. My therapeutic function at this time was primarily to allow him to share his experiences.
During the early part of the second year Fred made his first social contact outside of therapy by joining a group of “fringe people like myself” in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. At first, I was reluctant to encourage his bringing me material from his game sessions as it appeared to be resistance; however, it did allow him some social contact, and the eagerness with which he told me about the game indicated to me the importance of his sharing this material. I began to encourage him to bring summaries of episodes into therapy and to ask about motivation and feelings of characters. Therapy was now confined to his displaced material, and emotional content began to emerge. He returned to school during this period.
After six months of this approach, Fred was able to verbalize feelings toward me and began to abandon the need to speak through the displaced medium of Dungeons and Dragons.
He said his parents made him feel rejected and punished through implied loss of love and attention. They criticized him for being angry at, or envious of, his deformed brother. This left Fred with the belief that there was “something wrong with me for having these feelings.”
He stated that he had been able to experience the full range of feelings from hate to love in therapy, first displaced, then toward me, and that my tolerant, encouraging attitude allowed him to develop the sense that these emotions are permissible. This helped him to gain mastery of these feelings. It further led him to state that it gave him a sense of being “OK,” and that much of his feeling of self-worth began with my first acceptance of his Dungeons and Dragons fantasies.
Dungeons and Dragons is an imagination game. Worlds are created and the participants play characters in this imaginary world. Each player’s character is created according to a set of rules that govern abilities and classes of characters.Through complicated series of dice rolls, a character is dealt strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, and charisma. The types of characters are clerics, dwarves, elves, fighters, halflings, magic users or thieves. Each of these has a characteristic range of the above abilities. All characters choose “alignments” of Lawful (good), Chaotic (or evil) or Neutral, which will further dictate behavior in situations: a complete personality or alter ego is thus delineated. These characters then work their way as a party (group of players) through the imaginary world, casting spells, undergoing adventures, fighting monsters, and non-player characters and seeking treasure. The outcome of each encounter is dictated by rolls of odd-shaped dice that take into account a character’s profile through a formula. All of this is overseen by a Dungeon Master or a character who acts as a referee.1
Two points stand out. The worlds, or dungeons, are very much primary-process creations. There is no sense of time or reality. Thus, walls may be alive and grab a passing character. Sexes may change, dead may be resurrected and so forth. In juxtaposition to the suspension of the rules of the real world are the complicated rules by which the game is governed. Every encounter is governed by rules. The game is characterized by rules. The introductory book of rules is 64 pages long and there are many additional books of rules beyond this! In order to become proficient, a player must study the rules at great length, as the game has no fixed end point. A single game may last for years. As the group of players masters a dungeon, it can go to lower (more difficult) levels to begin again.
Fred eventually joined several games and developed complete characters in each, with mores, personalities, hopes, fears, and emotions. As he described his ongoing adventures in therapy, it became possible to use each projectively and relate the characters’ thoughts, feelings and motives.
In one game, an encounter lasted for several months. Fred had taken a character who had a “lawful-evil” personality. His party had stopped in a village. He had gotten his character hired to work for the richest man in the village, a character controlled by the dungeon master. He related his progress to me as his character killed the sons of the rich man, conspired to marry his daughter, and ultimately seize the treasures of this man.
As he recounted this material in the therapy we focused on two questions: the motives and feelings of the character as he schemed and acted, and wether Fred had ever had such feelings, and in what situations. Gradually, he was able to relate that he had felt his brother had always gotten the family “treasures” of love and attention and that he had wanted to murder him much of the time. Further he revealed how such feelings were always difficult to express, but that he could see himself experiencing these feelings toward his brother again and again in many situations.
Another illustrative situation involved an episode when, in his group therapy, he had been confronted unrelentingly by the other members of the group about his lack of a girlfriend to which his only response was an angry, “Back off!” In individual therapy shortly thereafter, he revealed that the intervening Dungeons and Dragons encounter had involved his party’s striking out into an uncharted portion of a valley which they created as they went along. In this valley the party encountered five farms (the number of other group members in his therapy group). Because of an insult in the party, under Fred’s direction, they proceeded to slaughter the farmers’ families and livestock and burn down the farms. This incident involved his working through murderous rage at the therapy group in a safe, displaced way. He could talk about this incident directly only months later at which time he revealed a prior inability to find an outlet for such feelings. Similarly, grandiose and magical desires were revealed in his experience as a dungeon master; feelings of loss and separation over death of one of his characters and many similar examples.
The feelings this patient expressed in therapy were all threatening to him initially. The game provided a vehicle for the safe emergence of feeling within the context of organizing rules. As he first expressed them in a displaced way and got used to them in fantasy, he could feel safe with his feelings and begin to direct them more directly to another person. Slowly this man has been able to emerge from his isolation. He has developed self-esteem, made friends, lost his virginity, and has been able to date fairly regularly. He continued in therapy with me in more traditional ways, off and on, over a period of ten years after his suicide attempt. He is now a more openly emotional person who does not need to displace his feelings. Fred terminated therapy appropriately when his career required a move and was married about nine months later.
Freud described dreams as the “road to the unconscious” and pointed to the value of discussing dreams and a patient’s associations to his dreams in conducting therapy.2 As the century progressed, the principles were expanded by various authors to both waking fantasy and to play in children for their projective value and revelation of primary process. Thus Freud discussed the relationship between fantasy and dreams3 (p. 178) but also described how play could be used as a repetition-compulsion to re-experience events that overwhelm the ego and thus to master them.4 This observation was modified and expanded by Erikson5 to demonstrate that play could be used to gain mastery. Waelder6 saw play and fantasy as: “Instinctual gratification and assimilation of disagreeable experiences” (p. 222), in other words, mastery. Freud also suggested that fantasy provided immediate wish-fulfillment.2 Thus there is much to suggest in these observations that there is a relationship among play, dreams and waking fantasy. This relationship has been shown to be closer than analytic writers may have realized. Thus Cartwright7 demonstrated that the need for Rapid-Eye-Movement (REM) dreams could be decreased by waking, drug-induced hallucinations. Cartwright and Monroe8 showed that REM deprivation could be fended off by encouraging waking fantasy. In a study of WREM dreams, Pivik and Foulkes9 demonstrated that: “waking story telling ability correlated with NREM dreamlike fantasy” (p. 148).Klinger10 describes them as functionally interchangeable: “REM sleep suppression is reduced by permitting the substitution of waking dream description and related fantasy-like ideation for the dream loss” (p. 83).
The therapeutic use of fantasy is well known. It has formed the core of some therapies such as Guided Affective Imagery where fantasies are suggested to relaxed patients11-13 while Klinger10 suggests that: “Fantasy is incapable of reducing drives as such, but [...] can prevent or reduce the build-up of anger and can diminish anticipatory anxiety about unavoidable pain better than activities that [...] cure off anger and anxiety” (p. 315). Wolpe14 describes the use of fantasy as a means of “systemic desensitization.”
Dungeons and Dragons is a form of group-related, organized, controlled waking fantasy. It has all the elements of free fantasy and encourages free fantasy as there is no board or movable pieces to provide inhibitions to imagination. Players are encouraged to become their characters in the course of the game, which is to say, to become their own fantasies. Juxtaposed to this active encouragement of the merge of the player’ fantasies is the ever present structure of the rules that provide a vehicle for how one is to fantasize. This further offers reassurance that when needed, there are rules to provide structure for the wanderings of one’s imagination. For the patient, the game served as an organized vehicle to become familiar with his own unconscious. The use of this material in therapy, the questioning of motives and emotions allowed these underlying unconscious thoughts to come to awareness and be worked through.
In this way the game within therapy could be used to work through processes halted in childhood in the way Bettelheim15 suggests fairy tales do, by giving form and structure to day dreams and fantasies and, therefore, form to a person’s life. Beyond this, however, the use of game material in therapy served the therapeutic relationship. Bettelheim states that when parents do not allow a child an organized outlet for the “dark side of humanity” or convey the thought that such a side does not or should not exist, the child, experiencing natural thoughts and feelings, is left with the feeling of being a monster. Further, the fantasies of fairy tales teach children how to channel their emotions in a way that allows integration of personality by “meaningful and rewarding relations in the world around him.”15 Certainly this patient took something from the peer relationships in the games. In his own words, however, almost as if speaking from Bettelheim, the encouragement to become familiar with the emotions of his characters allowed him to “become familiar” with his own emotions. Beyond that, my patient’s acceptance of these feelings allowed him to see himself as not a monster for having them. His parents had left him with the impression that it was wrong to be angry with his crippled brother. In the patient’s words: “This fact, more than anything that was actually said in the therapy is what I’ve gotten from the therapy.” Langs16 points out that there is always a “spiralling unconscious communicative interaction” between patient and therapist, and that this is where the work of therapy transpires and that the patient’s communications are “adaptational responses prompted by emotionally meaningful stimuli.” Certainly this is what has happened in this therapy. The relationship allowed permission for feelings of anger and love and all in between to emerge. The vehicle to reach these feelings quickly and safely was through the use of projections and displacements of the fantasies onto the Dungeons and Dragons game. This was the vehicle by which this patient could interact with me as his therapist in an emotional way. This made possible the later work of therapy that might not otherwise have been possible in an individual who was so schizoid. It allowed this patient to experience as safe the working through of transference later in the therapy. This is essentially what Kernberg17 speaks of in emphasizing the need for structure in therapy to proceed. Structure will “[...] [U]ndo the confusion caused by frequent ‘exchange’ of self- and object-representation projections by the patient.”
Perhaps the most important aspect of all can best be summed up by the words of Winnicott: “Psychotherapy takes place in the overlap of two areas of playing, that of the patient and that of the therapist. Psychotherapy has to do with two people playing together. The corollary of this is that where playing is not possible then the work done by the therapist is directed towards bringing the patient from a state of not being able to play into a state of being able to play.”18 In much this way, play and fantasy were used as vehicles to help foster an ego-building relationship for this patient. He could develop better selfobjects out of the safety he felt in a therapeutic relationship where his fantasies were tolerated, encouraged and guided. It seems, therefore, that we could help many people for whom traditional modes of therapy are unavailable because they lack the capacity to regress sufficiently in the company of the therapist to allow the work of therapy for structural, emotional change to proceed. By introducing fantasy and play, Dungeons and Dragons appears to have been the vehicle that allowed the patient described in this paper to enhance ego development.
A process whereby fantasy is used to overcome the inability of obsessives, schizoids, borderlines, adolescents, and alexithymics to work toward emotional change may have considerable merit. The high degree of structure engendered by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons seems to bypass some of the risks of fantasy-based therapies such as Guided Affective Imagery while allowing emotions to emerge within the therapy in a nonthreatening manner. At the same time, the therapist’s interest and attention may serve a function of mirroring approval as patients become familiar with their own, but displaced, psychic structure. The use of this game as an adjunct to therapy can allow patients an opportunity to explore their mental dungeons and slay their psychic dragons.
A schizoid young man made a methodical attempt at suicide. He revealed a paucity of object attachments leading to profound isolation. His early upbring led him to extreme isolation of affect and a fear of fragmentation.
His inner life was not safely reachable by conventional therapy. After he became involved in playing a fantasy game, Dungeons and Dragons, the therapy was modified to use the game material as displaced, waking fantasy. This fantasy was used as a safe guide to help the patient learn to acknowledge and express his inner self in a safe and guided way. The patient ultimately matured and developed healthier object relations and a better life.
The theoretical underpinnings of this process are explored, both in dynamic terms and in terms of the biologic correlation and equivalence of dreams and waking fantasy. The utility of this game as a vehicle for treatment of selected individuals is discussed.
1 Moldvoy, T. (Ed.) (1981). Dungeons and Dragons Basic Rulebook. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR.
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6 Waelder, R. (1932). The psychoanalytic theory of play. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 2, 208-224.
7 Cartwright, R. D. (1966). Dream and drug-induced fantasy behavior. Archives of General Psychiatry, 15, 7-15.
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14 Wolpe, J. (1973). The practice of behavior therapy, 2nd Ed. New York: Pergamon Press.
15 Bettelheim, B. (1976). The uses of enchantment. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
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17 Kernberg, O. (1968). The treatment of patients with borderline personality organization. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 49, 600-619.
18 Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing: A theoretical statement. In Playing and reality. New York: Basic Books.