Tom Hollensteinonline
CollaboratorShort bio
Associate Professor in Developmental Psychology at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Top-3 games
- Chess
- Journey
- Everything
About me
I am specializing in adolescent emotional development, emotion regulation, dynamic systems, state space grids, observational methods, and psychophysiology. PI on studies of MindLight in Canada.. Currently I am working on rectifying process and strategy accounts of emotion regulation, concordance across appraisal, expressive, and physiological arousal during emotion, testing the social baseline hypothesis of adolescence, the impact of mindsets on socioemotional functioning, and nested time scales of real-time emotions within day-to-day functioning across developmental time. My interest in gaming is as a research tool to tap into theorized mechanisms of emotion regulation, and of course to improve children's lives.
Projects I’ve worked on
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CategoryAnxiety | DepressionDate04/02/2023Study/CourseLocation
MindLight - Childhood Anxiety Prevention
About the projectMany children have difficulties with fearful situations and are anxious. Interventions can help to teach children to cope effectively with anxiety-inducing situations. In our project, we rigorously tested whether an intervention in the form of a video game (MindLight) is effective in significantly reducing anxiety symptoms in children 8-12 years old. We did this by comparing MindLight to 1) a commercial game and 2) the gold-standard, cognitive-behavioural therapy for anxiety (Coping Cat). Furthermore, we evaluated the motivational characteristics of MindLight and for whom (e.g., age and gender differences) it is effective.
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CategoryResilienceDate04/02/2023Study/CourseLocation
Nonspecific Factors in Video Games for Mental Health
About the projectMore and more games are designed to promote mental health. If these games are found to be effective, it is important to investigate which factors are responsible for the improvements in mental health. Most often, this type of research focuses on the specific clinical techniques that were designed into the game. However, from the clinical literature it is known that, for instance, expectations, motivation, and one’s mindset about the malleability of symptoms play a major role in positive intervention outcomes. In my project I aim to investigate these nonspecific factors and examine how we can manipulate these factors in order to optimize video games for mental health.
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My publications
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Insights about Screen-use Conflict from Discussions between Mothers and Pre-adolescents: A Thematic Analysis
Francis, K., Scholten, H., Granic, I., Lougheed, J., & Hollenstein, T. (2021). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(9), 4686. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094686
Author: Kathleen Francis
Upload date: 04-28-2022
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Reductions of Anxiety Symptoms, State Anxiety, and Anxious Arousal in Youth Playing the Videogame MindLight Compared to Online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Tsui, T. Y., DeFrance, K., Khalid-Khan, S., Granic, I., & Hollenstein, T. (2021). Games for Health Journal, 10(5), 330-338. https://doi.org/10.1089/g4h.2020.0083
Author: Tiffany Y.L. Tsui
Upload date: 09-28-2021
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Preregistration: The Effect of Expectations on Experienced Fun, Mood, State-Anxiety and In-Game Play Behaviours while playing MindLight
Wols, A., Hollenstein, T., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., & Granic, I. (2019). https://osf.io/6gmwv
Author: Aniek Wols
Upload date: 07-05-2019
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Tom Hollenstein on Google Scholar
Dynamic Systems, Adolescence, Development, Emotion, Emotion Regulation
Author: Tom Hollenstein
Upload date: 02-04-2023
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The Effect of Expectations on Experiences and Engagement with an Applied Game for Mental Health
Wols, A., Hollenstein, T., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., & Granic (2021). Games for Health, 10(4), 207-219.
Author: Aniek Wols
Upload date: 08-09-2021
Worked together with
Professor and Chair of the Developmental Psychopathology department in the Behavioural Science Institute; writer; voracious podcast consumer; mother of two upstanding little gamers
Professor at McMaster's University
Assistant Professor at the Developmental Psychopathology Department, mainly interested in general processes and principles of clinical change; mother of two wild boys.
Assistant Professor
Rutger Engels
CEO at Trimbos Institute / Professor Developmental Psychopathology Utrecht University