The DOI matches its Crossref record; 36 of the 38 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Personal Investigator: A therapeutic 3D game for adolecscent psychotherapy
Open accessAbstract
Although mental health problems increase markedly during adolescent years, therapists often find it difficult to engage with adolescents. The majority of disturbed adolescents do not receive professional mental health care and of those who do fewer still will fully engage with the therapeutic process (Offer et al. 1991; US Surgeon General 1999). Personal Investigator (PI) is a 3D computer game specifically designed to help adolescents overcome mental health problems such as depression and help them engage more easily with professional mental health care services. PI is an implementation of a new computer mediated model for how therapists and adolescents can engage. The model has its theoretical foundations in play therapy and therapeutic storytelling and applies current research on the educational use of computer gaming and interactive narrative systems to these foundations. Previously demonstrated benefits of computer games and interactive narrative systems in education include increased motivation, increased self‐esteem, improved problem solving and discussion skills and improved storytelling skills (Bruckman 1997; Bers 2001; Robertson 2001; Robertson and Oberlander 2002; Bers et al. 2003; Squire 2003). PI aims to take advantage of these benefits in a mental health care setting. PI incorporates a goal‐oriented, strengths based model of psychotherapy called Solution Focused Therapy (SFT). By engaging adolescents, in a client‐centred way, it aims to build stronger therapeutic relationships between therapists and adolescents. PI is the first game to integrate this established psychotherapy approach into an engaging online 3D game. Results of trials of PI with four adolescents, referred to clinics for issues including anxiety and behaviour problems, attempted suicide, and social skills difficulties, are presented.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Game-based digital interventions have been found to have practical effects in addressing the main barriers of access and engagement in the healthcare domain, particularly for the young.6”
From Game-based digital interventions for depression therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2014) · cites this paper as [6]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Bruner, J. (1986) · doi:10.4159/9780674029019 · Cited by 8,657
(1991) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.28-6498 · Cited by 8,159
Actual Minds, Possible Worlds.
Mergler, N. L., Schleifer, R., & Bruner, J. S. (1986) · MLN · doi:10.2307/2905728 · Cited by 6,626
(1990) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 5,835
Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General
United States. Public Health Service. Office of the Surgeon General (1999) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e636982009-001 · Cited by 3,105
Toward a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating Instruction*
Malone, T. W. (1981) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1207/s15516709cog0504_2 · Cited by 2,197
Clues: Investigating Solutions in Brief Therapy
de Shazer, S. (1988) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 1,128
The empirical case for the common factors in therapy: Quantitative findings.
Asay, T. P., & Lambert, M. J. (1999) · American Psychological Association eBooks · doi:10.1037/11132-001 · Cited by 736
Squire, K. D. (2003) · Cited by 714
Solution‐Focused Brief Therapy: A Review of the Outcome Research*
Gingerich, W. J., & Eisengart, S. P. (2000) · Family Process · doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.2000.39408.x · Cited by 424
Research works printed but not linked: 13
- Bruner J., 1986, Possible Worlds
- Clark B., 1984, Using Computers in Clinical Practice: Psychotherapy and Mental Health Applications, 335
- Elliott J., 2002, Proceedings of ICLS2002 International Conference of the Learning Sciences.
- Lindley C. A., Proceedings of NILE2002, 16
- Malone T. W., 1981, Byte, 6, 258
- 10.1016/S0364-0213(81)80017-1 · DOI · Paper page
- McFarlane A., 2002, Report on Educational Use of Games: Teachers Evaluating Educational Multimedia Report. A report to TEEM.
- Pope A. T., 2001, Proceedings of Playing by the Rules Conference.
- Resnick H., 1994, Computers in Human Services, 11, 17
- Robertson J., 2002, Journal of Computer Meditated Communication 8(1), online at http://www.ascusc.org/ jcmc/vol8/issue1/robertson/robertson.html.(Retrieved
- Sharry J., 2001, Becoming a Solution Detective: Identifying your clients' strengths in Practical Brief Therapy
- Sharry J., 2004, Counselling Children, Adolescents and Families
- Squire K., 2003, International Journal of Intelligent Simulations and Gaming, 2, 49
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 101–118 of 118
Susana, J.-M., Fernando, F.-A., Elias, K., Dimitri, K., Todor, G., Otilia, K., Tony, L., Santamaría Juan, J., Thierry, R., Christian, B., et al. (2009) · Studies in Health Technology and Informatics · doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-017-9-163 · Cited by 43
A Study on Improving Fun Factor of Psychotherapy Game
Lee, M.-J. (2012) · Journal of Digital Contents Society · doi:10.9728/dcs.2012.13.1.013
Kan emotionell inlärning användas till en starkare faktainlärning
Ekelund, M. L. (2010)
O uso de videogames na clínica psicoterápica: revisão de literatura
Gallina, L. M. (2012)
PSICOTERAPIA COM DISPOSITIVOS MÓVEIS
Ciências, F. D. (2011)
Videojuegos y redes sociales en línea para la sensibilizacón sobre la tuberculosis pulmonar
Zambrano, M. Á. N., Tobar-Muñoz, H. F., & Lemos, J. (2009) · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja)
Moon, S.-W. (2009) · The Korean Journal of Woman Psychology · doi:10.18205/kpa.2009.14.4.012
Being a Child Is a “Serious Game”
Manna, V., & Pisanti, O. (2018) · Advances in psychology, mental health, and behavioral studies (APMHBS) book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-3958-2.ch011
Games for a Good Cause: Serious Games in Social Development and Medical and Rehabilitation Therapy
Lawati, B. A. (2019) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-22602-2_20
The design of systems to engage adolescents in professional mental health services
Matthews, M. L. (2009) · Trinity's Access to Research Output (TARA) (Trinity College Dublin)
Self-citationUsability Engineering and E-Health
Haniff, D. J. (2012) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-2770-3.ch072
Tran, B. (2017) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2255-3.ch284
Learning efficacy and user acceptance of a game-based social skills learning environment
Tan, J. L. (2013) · DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) · doi:10.32657/10356/53394
Being a Child Is a “Serious Game”
Manna, V., & Pisanti, O. (2018) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-7036-3.ch021
A 3D LEARNING GAME TO FOSTER COMPUTATIONAL THINKING IN K-12 EDUCATION
(2015) · Issues in Information Systems · doi:10.48009/4_iis_2015_20-29
Forms of Interaction in Virtual Space: Applications to Psychotherapy and Counselling
Chawla, S., & Foreman, N. (2011) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-21657-2_33
ÖZER, İ. Ö., & Bilgin, M. (2026) · International Journal of Bullying Prevention · doi:10.1007/s42380-026-00353-5
ÖZER, İ. Ö., & Bilgin, M. (2026) · Journal of Research on Technology in Education · doi:10.1080/15391523.2026.2655163
Metadata
- Authors
- Coyle, D., Matthews, M., Sharry, J., Nisbet, A., & Doherty, G.
- Affiliations
- Trinity College Dublin (IE)
- Venue
- Interactive Technology and Smart Education
- Publisher
- Emerald
- Published
- 2005-05-31
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 73-88
- ISSN
- 1741-5659 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2169244888
- Cited by
- 118
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 7.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Interactive Technology and Smart Education (publishedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (publishedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
- e-space (Manchester Metropolitan University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Higher Education Authority
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Therapy and Development
- Keywords
- 3D computer games, adolescent psychotherapy, adolescent depression, solution-focused therapy, therapeutic storytelling, play therapy, therapeutic relationship
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
