Effectiveness of a Crowdsourced Cognitive Reappraisal Intervention

A Randomized, Active-Controlled Trial to Investigate the Effectiveness of a Crowdsourced Cognitive Reappraisal Intervention.

This study evaluates a web-based, crowdsourcing platform to promote cognitive reappraisal. Half of participants will be granted access to the crowdsourced reappraisal platform. The other half will be provided a web-based expressive writing platform. The investigators hypothesize that the crowdsourcing reappraisal platform will be more effective than the expressive writing platform in promoting positive psychological outcomes.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Depression
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Crowdsourcing reappraisal intervention; Behavioral: Expressive writing intervention

Detailed Description

There are many ways to manage stress and mood, including exercise, diet, and relaxation practices. Cognitive-based techniques are also extremely powerful. Simply changing how you think about stressful situations can dramatically affect the way you feel. Individuals who routinely use strategies like cognitive reappraisal exhibit an enviable affective profile: studies suggest these individuals generally have less stress, lower incidence of depression, and better social functioning than those who rely on less adaptive emotion regulatory techniques. Techniques like cognitive reappraisal are also integral to many evidence-based psychotherapeutic traditions, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and rational-emotive therapy.

Unfortunately, cognitive techniques can be hard to learn. Thinking flexibly about stressful thoughts and situations requires creativity and poise, faculties that often elude us when we need them the most. In this study, the investigators evaluate a web-based technology that uses crowdsourcing and peer-to-peer interactions to help people learn cognitive-based techniques and apply them throughout their daily lives.

The goal of the proposed study is to see whether the investigators' technology is more engaging and more effective at reducing depression symptoms than a web-based expressive writing platform. While the investigators are most interested in how this intervention affects depression symptoms, the investigators will also assess other psychological variables and the investigators will open the study to the general population.

Participation in this study will last three weeks. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either a crowdsourcing reappraisal platform or an expressive writing platform. All study procedures (subject recruitment, baseline and follow-up assessments, interventions) will be conducted online.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 270
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 35 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• An email account, a desktop computer, and broadband Internet access
• Access to modern web browsers (e.g., Chrome, Safari, Firefox)
• Native English speaker
• 18 to 35 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• Planning to be without Internet access during the scheduled intervention time

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Crowdsourced Reappraisal; Participants received the web-based crowdsourcing reappraisal intervention.	Behavioral: Crowdsourcing reappraisal intervention; 3 week access to a web-based crowdsourcing reappraisal platform.
Active Comparator: Expressive Writing; Participants received the web-based expressive writing intervention.	Behavioral: Expressive writing intervention; 3 week access to a web-based expressive writing platform.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale	Baseline and 3 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Emotion Regulation Questionnaire		Baseline and 3 weeks
Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire		Baseline and 3 weeks
Subjective Happiness Scale		Baseline and 3 weeks
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule		Baseline and 3 weeks
Utilization and Attrition	activity level (word count, number of social actions, average number and length of web sessions)	Baseline-week 3

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Collaborators: Northwestern University; Columbia University; University of Florida
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Rosalind W Picard, Sc.D, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Morris RR, Schueller SM, Picard RW. Efficacy of a Web-based, crowdsourced peer-to-peer cognitive reappraisal platform for depression: randomized controlled trial. J Med Internet Res. 2015 Mar 30;17(3):e72. doi: 10.2196/jmir.4167.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: April 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): July 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 24, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 25, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): November 26, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): November 26, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 25, 2014
• Last Verified: November 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Depression
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1311006002