ASSIGNMENT
Every day, 5 people die by suicide in the Netherlands. This number would be drastically higher without the intervention of first responders, such as crisis negotiators who are trained to talk to people considering ending their own lives and prevent them from coming to harm.
To prepare crisis negotiators for these interactions, their training combines theoretical learning with practical experience through role-playing exercises. There are, however, limitations to what role-playing exercises can offer. Role-playing exercises face challenges due to their reliance on participant imagination and acting skills, which can lead to inconsistent quality and emotional realism, and they are also resource-intensive and difficult to scale. Technological solutions offer an opportunity to compensate for these limitations. Virtual reality and serious games are the strongest candidates for expanding training time. Both technologies allow for standardised scenarios and objective metrics, and are scalable and accessible. These technologies have also been shown to create successful training environments in a wide variety of domains, including firefighting, defence and healthcare. Yet, it is currently unknown whether this efficacy also applies to suicide negotiation training and, if so, which technology is most effective. This is a critical question because there are large differences in costs and ease of scalability between the two media.
The proposed study will, therefore, compare virtual reality and serious gaming to determine which technology is most promising for expanding training time for de-escalating situations with persons who are in crisis.
In this internship, you’ll contribute to improving crisis negotiation training by combining research with input on practical development. Tasks will include reviewing existing studies to explore how different technologies - like virtual reality and serious games - affect communication and performance in social situations, and collaborating with tech experts from 8D Games, researchers, and police trainers to help upgrade a virtual reality simulation of a suicide negotiation, originally created during earlier PCRS internships and master’s projects. You’ll also help shape its transformation into a serious game that runs on a regular computer. Don’t worry - 8D Games will handle the technical development, so no advanced coding skills are needed.
Each student will have a unique focus: one will concentrate more on the technological learning experience, such as stress, immersion and presence in the VR and serious game environments; the other will focus on key interpersonal dynamics in suicide negotiation, such as empathy, trust, rapport, and influence. Both students will conduct a joint small pilot study comparing the two formats, which will form the foundation for their individual master’s theses.
KEYWORDS
Suicide negotiation; serious game; virtual reality; learning; trust; rapport.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ORGANIZATION
The section Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety at the University of Twente has a distinctive and unique profile in the areas of risk perception and risk communication, conflict and crisis management and the antecedents of risky, antisocial and criminal behaviour. It currently includes 16 research staff members and 8 PhD students. We work from both a psychology and an engineering perspective and cooperate with other scientific disciplines, based on the “high tech, human touch” profile of the University of Twente.
AVAILABILITY
Block 1B. This internship is open to 1 student.
INTERESTED?
Please contact the internship coordinator Miriam Oostinga (m.s.d.oostinga@utwente.nl).
LITERATURE
- Lavoie, J., Álvarez, N., Baker, V., & Kohl, J. (2023). Training police to de-escalate mental health crisis situations: Comparing virtual reality and live-action scenario-based approaches. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 17. https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paad069
- Kleygrewe, L., Hutter, R. I. V., Koedijk, M., & Oudejans, R. R. D. (2024). Virtual reality training for police officers: a comparison of training responses in VR and real-life training. Police Practice and Research, 25(1), 18-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2023.2176307
- Oh, C. S., Bailenson, J. N., & Welch, G. F. (2018). A Systematic Review of Social Presence: Definition, Antecedents, and Implications [Systematic Review]. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2018.00114
- Vecchi, G. M., Wong, G. K., Wong, P. W., & Markey, M. A. (2019). Negotiating in the skies of Hong Kong: The efficacy of the Behavioral Influence Stairway Model (BISM) in suicidal crisis situations. Aggression and violent behavior, 48, 230-239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2019.08.002