Members in the Media
From: Pacific Standard

Anxiety? There’s an App for That

Pacific Standard:

The future of anxiety treatment may not be pills or therapy sessions, but games on your phone.

Two researchers, one at the City University of New York’s Hunter College and the other at CUNY’s graduate center, published a study in Clinical Psychological Science this month that looks at the effects of “gamifying” psychological interventions for people prone to stress. They found that a bit of play time on a specially designed mobile app before high-pressure situations reduces stress and boosts composure when the pressure’s on.

To test this idea of “gamification,” the researchers recruited university students who scored highly on an anxiety test and had each play one of two versions of the same video game on an iPod. The game is kind of weird. Two tear drop-shaped blue genie heads appear on the screen over a grass field, one with a happy face, the other with an angry face. Both heads burrow into the ground, and the player must use a finger to trace their paths as they scurry around beneath the dirt. Points and colorful gems are awarded for quick performances.

Read the whole story: Pacific Standard

More of our Members in the Media >


APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.

Please login with your APS account to comment.