Devil’s Advocate

By University of Central Florida RETRO Laboratory

 

Student Category

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011 Finalist

 

Skills and Ideas Taught: Devil’s Advocate focuses on the practice of labeling negative automatic thoughts. 

Goal or Challenge:  Players must correctly identify different types of negative thoughts, which is integral to cognitive restructuring therapy.

Primary Audience:  Soldiers currently serving in the US Army who are facing deployment.

Assessment Approach:  The player needs to successfully label all of the negative automatic thoughts in the level before they can progress.  Correct answers allow the player to progress to new levels to complete the game. Incorrect answers confuse game avatars and the player must replay that portion of the game until they correctly label the thought.

Description:  Devil’s Advocate is a minigame embedded within a larger interactive simulation whose goal is to teach positive psychological health skills to military service members facing deployment.   Devil’s Advocate play focuses on a facet of a specific type of cognitive therapy concerned with lessening anxiety and depression. Specifically, players must successfully identify different types of negative automatic thoughts as a part of cognitive restructuring therapy.

Game Engine: Flash (AS3)

Operating System:  Web

Platform:  Personal computer

Special Hardware:  None