Greetings!
I'm Shweta Sunil, and I'm a Clinical Psychology Trainee at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India. As a part of my coursework, I am
conducting a research on a study entitled “Reality Shifting: Psychological Correlates of Social Media Use”.
Reality Shifting refers to the process
by which an individual attempts to move out from or leave their current
environment and move into an imagined or fictional environment (for e.g.., trying
to move from the person’s current environment to, say, a Harry Potter
reality/universe). We will attempt to understand how wanting to “shift
realities in social media” might be related to an individual’s mental health,
both to boost psychological wellbeing, and to cope with daily struggles and
challenges. This information will be used to enhance knowledge in what ways
Reality Shifting can have both a positive and negative impact on one’s mental
health.
For this study, we are looking for
individuals who have interacted with shifting content and processes, who engage in use of the
internet and social media. We have identified you as a potential participant
for the study, and seek your inputs for the same. Your inputs will be kept confidential and used solely for research purpose . Your participation would be
contributing to understanding the role of Reality Shifting within the context
of mental health., so as to establish both healthy and unhealthy uses of the
technique.
However, before we proceed to the first stage of the study, we would like to invite you to fill the screening form for the study, in order to help us understand more about you. We request you to kindly fill this short form, which will take about 5 minutes of your time. We will then be contacting you in order to brief you on the details of the study, post which we look forward to interacting with you in the further steps of the study, if you wish to participate in the same.
We
welcome questions you may have about the study. Please feel free to contact
now, or at any time during the study. If you need any information/
clarification with regard to this study, please contact Ms. Shweta Sunil, MPhil
Scholar, Department of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS (Email ID:
thesisinfo0601@gmail.com) or Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma, Professor, Department of
Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS (Ph.: 26995197) at any point during the study.
