Abstract Anger is a difficult emotion to control

Virtual Reality Game for Aggression Impulse ManagEment dr. Danique Smeijers & prof. dr. Sander Koole Background Anger is a difficult emotion to control, presumably because it is thought to be an approach-related affect. Recent studies suggest that it is possible to modify the motivational core of anger by training people to make avoidance movements towards angry faces. This training was successful in reducing angry feelings and aggressive impulses. Based on this paradigm a game in virtual reality was developed and provided alongside general aggression treatment among forensic psychiatric outpatients. It, currently, is investigated whether this combination is more successful in reducing anger and aggressive behavior.

Design - 60 forensic psychiatric outpatients (recruitment till December 2018) - Referred to aggression regulation training (ART) - Randomization experimental vs. control condition - Playing VR-GAIME alongside the first five ART sessions Screening Start ART Baseline

VR-GAIME along first 5 ART sessions

Aggression measurement

End of treatment measurement after 12 weeks

Virtual Reality Game for Aggression Impulse ManagEment (VR-GAIME) Cover story: During the VR-GAIME, each participant gets assigned to the role of a courier who has to collect packages and throw away rubbish in a shopping street. In the shopping street, the participant is met by avatars who are acting in either an agreeable or disagreeable manner. Agreeable avatars have a happy or neutral facial expression and are saying pleasant things (e.g., “Have a nice day”; “You are wearing such a nice shirt!”). Disagreeable avatars, by contrast, have an angry facial expression and are saying unpleasant things (e.g., What are you looking at?; “Get out of my way!”). Instruction: Participants will be instructed to step and lean forwards (i.e., make an approach movement) in response to agreeable avatars and to step and lean backwards (i.e., make an avoidance movement) in response to disagreeable avatars. Condition: The game has five main levels, which are ascending in level of difficulty. In the experimental condition, in each level, four agreeable and four disagreeable avatars will appear. In the control condition, only eight agreeable avatars in each level will appear. Contact: +31243527692 [email protected]