Virtual Social Environments as a Tool for Psychological Assessment: Dynamics of Interaction with a Virtual Spouse

Autor/inn/en	Schonbrodt, Felix D.; Asendorpf, Jens B.
Titel	Virtual Social Environments as a Tool for Psychological Assessment: Dynamics of Interaction with a Virtual Spouse
Quelle	In: Psychological Assessment, 23 (2011) 1, S.7-17 (11 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1040-3590
DOI	10.1037/a0021049
Schlagwörter	Psychological Evaluation; Games; Computer Simulation; Simulated Environment; Social Environment; Spouses; Intimacy; Interpersonal Relationship; Satisfaction; Behavior; Motivation; Foreign Countries; Germany (Berlin) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Psychosoziale Beurteilung; Game; Spiel; Spiele; Computergrafik; Computersimulation; Künstliche Umwelt; Soziales Umfeld; Ehepartner; Intimität; Interpersonal relation; Interpersonal relations; Interpersonelle Beziehung; Zwischenmenschliche Beziehung; Zufriedenheit; psychologische; Motivation (psychologisch); Ausland
Abstract	Computer games are advocated as a promising tool bridging the gap between the controllability of a lab experiment and the mundane realism of a field experiment. At the same time, many authors stress the importance of observing real behavior instead of asking participants about possible or intended behaviors. In this article, the authors introduce an online "virtual social environment", which is inhabited by autonomous agents including the virtual spouse of the participant. Participants can freely explore the virtual world and interact with any other inhabitant, allowing the expression of spontaneous and unprompted behavior. The authors investigated the usefulness of this game for the assessment of interactions with a virtual spouse and their relations to intimacy and autonomy motivation as well as relationship satisfaction with the real-life partner. Both the intimacy motive and the satisfaction with the real-world relationship showed significant correlations with aggregated in-game behavior, which shows that some sort of transference between the real world and the virtual world took place. In addition, a process analysis of interaction quality revealed that relationship satisfaction and intimacy motive had different effects on the initial status and the time course of the interaction quality. Implications for psychological assessment using virtual social environments are discussed. (Contains 2 figures, 2 tables and 5 footnotes.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10