The psychology of immersion and development of a quantitative measure of immersive response in games

This study sets out to investigate the psychology of immersion and the immersive response of individuals in relation to video and computer games. Initially, an exhaustive review of literature is presented, including research into games, player demographics, personality and identity. Play in traditional psychology is also reviewed, as well as previous research into immersion and attempts to define and measure this construct. An online qualitative study was carried out (N=38), and data was analysed using content analysis. A definition of immersion emerged, as well as a classification of two separate types of immersion, namely, vicarious immersion and visceral immersion. A survey study (N=217) verified the discrete nature of these categories and rejected the null hypothesis that there was no difference between individuals' interpretations of vicarious and visceral immersion. The primary aim of this research was to create a quantitative instrument which measures the immersive response as experienced by the player in a single game session. The IMX Questionnaire was developed using data from the initial qualitative study and quantitative survey. Exploratory Factor Analysis was carried out on data from 300 participants for the IMX Version 1, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted on data from 380 participants on the IMX Version 2. IMX Version 3 was developed from the results of these analyses. This questionnaire was found to have high internal consistency reliability and validity.

Development of a general internet attitude scale and internet self-efficacy scale

The measurement of users’ attitudes towards and confidence with using the Internet is an important yet poorly researched topic. Previous research has encountered issues that serve to obfuscate rather than clarify. Such issues include a lack of distinction between the terms ‘attitude’ and ‘self-efficacy’, the absence of a theoretical framework to measure each concept, and failure to follow well-established techniques for the measurement of both attitude and self-efficacy. Thus, the primary aim of this research was to develop two statistically reliable scales which independently measure attitudes towards the Internet and Internet self-efficacy. This research addressed the outlined issues by applying appropriate theoretical frameworks to each of the constructs under investigation. First, the well-known three component (affect, behaviour, cognition) model of attitudes was applied to previous Internet attitude statements. The scale was distributed to four large samples of participants. Exploratory factor analyses revealed four underlying factors in the scale: Internet Affect, Internet Exhilaration, Social Benefit of the Internet and Internet Detriment. The final scale contains 21 items, demonstrates excellent reliability and achieved excellent model fit in the confirmatory factor analysis. Second, Bandura’s (1997) model of self-efficacy was followed to develop a reliable measure of Internet self-efficacy. Data collected as part of this research suggests that there are ten main activities which individuals can carry out on the Internet. Preliminary analyses suggested that self-efficacy is confounded with previous experience; thus, individuals were invited to indicate how frequently they performed the listed Internet tasks in addition to rating their feelings of self-efficacy for each task. The scale was distributed to a sample of 841 participants. Results from the analyses suggest that the more frequently an individual performs an activity on the Internet, the higher their self-efficacy score for that activity. This suggests that frequency of use ought to be taken into account in individual’s self-efficacy scores to obtain a ‘true’ self-efficacy score for the individual. Thus, a formula was devised to incorporate participants’ previous experience of Internet tasks in their Internet self-efficacy scores. This formula was then used to obtain an overall Internet self-efficacy score for participants. Following the development of both scales, gender and age differences were explored in Internet attitudes and Internet self-efficacy scores. The analyses indicated that there were no gender differences between groups for Internet attitude or Internet self-efficacy scores. However, age group differences were identified for both attitudes and self-efficacy. Individuals aged 25-34 years achieved the highest scores on both the Internet attitude and Internet self-efficacy measures. Internet attitude and self-efficacy scores tended to decrease with age with older participants achieving lower scores on both measures than younger participants. It was also found that the more exposure individuals had to the Internet, the higher their Internet attitude and Internet self-efficacy scores. Examination of the relationship between attitude and self-efficacy found a significantly positive relationship between the two measures suggesting that the two constructs are related. Implication of such findings and directions for future research are outlined in detail in the Discussion section of this thesis.

Self-neglect: development and evaluation of a self-neglect (SN-37) measurement instrument

Aim: To develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of an instrument for the measurement of self-neglect (SN).Conceptual Framework: An elder self-neglect (ESN) conceptual framework guided the literature review and scale development. The framework has two key dimensions physical/psycho-social and environmental and seven sub dimensions which are representative of the factors that can contribute to intentional and unintentional SN. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted to achieve the research aim. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 involved the development of the questionnaire content and structure. Phase 2 focused on establishing the psychometric properties of the instrument. Content validity was established by a panel of 8 experts and piloted with 9 health and social care professionals. The instrument was subsequently posted with a stamped addressed envelope to 566 health and social care professionals who met specific eligibility criteria across the four HSE areas. A total of 341 questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 60% and 305 (50%) completed responses were included in exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Item and factor analyses were performed to elicit the instruments underlying factor structure and establish preliminary construct validity. Findings: Item and factor analyses resulted in a logically coherent, 37 items, five factor solution, explaining 55.6% of the cumulative variance. The factors were labelled: ‘Environment’, ‘Social Networks’, ‘Emotional and Behavioural Liability’, ‘Health Avoidance’ and ‘Self-Determinism’. The factor loadings were >0.40 for all items on each of the five subscales. Preliminary construct validity was supported by findings. Conclusion: The main outcome of this research is a 37 item Self-Neglect (SN-37) measurement instrument that was developed by EFA and underpinned by an ESN conceptual framework. Preliminary psychometric evaluation of the instrument is promising. Future work should be directed at establishing the construct and criterion related validity of the instrument.