24 Chapter 1 another factor influencing game choice and gameplay. Individuals experiencing more (severe) symptoms may feel motivated by the personal relevance of a game promoted for its mental health benefits, such that they want to play the game compared to individuals with less (severe) symptoms. On the other hand, however, these individuals may avoid such games as they may think that it confronts them with their problems. In research on conventional programs, symptom severity has been associated with more help-seeking (Merikangas et al., 2011; M. I. Oliver et al., 2005; Sawyer et al., 2012; Van Starrenburg et al., 2017) as well as lower help-seeking tendencies (Chin et al., 2015; Sawyer et al., 2012), suggesting that evidence is inconclusive at this moment, and it remains unknown how symptom severity may impact game selection and engagement with mental health games. Additionally, individuals’ implicit theory or mindsets may play a role in the likelihood of selecting and playing a mental health game. Individuals can have mindsets about every personal attribute such as intelligence (Dweck, 2017c), personality (D. S. Yeager & Dweck, 2012), emotions (Tamir et al., 2007), and the nature of stress (Crum et al., 2013). In the literature, a distinction is made between two types of mindsets: a growth mindset (incremental theory) and a fixed mindset (entity theory). When adopting a growth mindset regarding a particular attribute, one believes that the attribute can be altered through dedicated effort, experience, and assistance from others (Dweck, 2013; Tamir et al., 2007). Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that a specific attribute is not (or less) malleable and cannot be controlled. The concept of mindsets, as proposed by Dweck (2013), revolves around the notion that mindsets shape individuals’ goals, action tendencies, beliefs about effort, and responses to setbacks (Dweck, 2017a, 2017c). As a result, mindsets emerge as significant motivational factors influencing behaviour (Burnette et al., 2013; Dweck, 2017a), potentially impacting help-seeking tendencies and treatment engagement (Burnette et al., 2019; Schroder et al., 2015). Furthermore, having a growth mindset has been linked to better mental health and well-being (Miu & Yeager, 2015; Romero et al., 2014; Schleider et al., 2015; Schroder et al., 2015; Zeng et al., 2016). Thus, given their relevance for behaviour and motivation, mindsets may influence the likelihood of selecting and playing a mental health game. Mindsets themselves, however, are malleable as well. Past studies have demonstrated that mindsets can change as a result of relatively brief interventions, such as watching short video clips, reading an article or performing a short writing exercise (e.g., Crum et al., 2013; Dweck, 2008; Jamieson et al., 2018; Miu & Yeager, 2015; D. S. Yeager et al., 2014). Of relevance in the current context is that games are known to be able to effectively
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