Sampling and Recruitment

Participants will be recruited through the gameChange trial. IPA requires samples to be constructed around a conceptualized shared perspective: in this case, as outlined above, this is operationalized in terms of adults experiencing psychosis and social anxiety, in receipt of NHS mental health care, who have received the gameChange VR therapy.

Multiple perspective designs in IPA allow this homogeneity to be supplemented by some dimensions of further variability, with each conceptualized additional perspective constituting its own subsample. We are recruiting approximately 25 participants, with 3-8 participants from each of the trial centers via liaison with local trial coordinators. This is a relatively large total sample for IPA, but in this study, IPA’s commitments to depth of analysis and idiographic detail will be met via the multiple perspective design (allowing the analysis to be developed via 2-4 subsamples) and with the additional support of a template analysis component.

The primary sampling method is to invite consecutive participants as they reach the final phase of the trial. Whenever possible, this will be supplemented by purposive sampling to recruit people with a range of views and experiences of the VR intervention. This will be ascertained through therapy completion rates (low: 0-2 sessions; medium: 3-5 sessions; high: 6-8 sessions).

Sampling will also be sensitive to the demographic characteristics of the participants, aiming for a balance of gender and a range of age and ethnicity. Other dimensions of interest include the profession of the staff member facilitating VR therapy sessions (peer support worker, clinical psychologist, assistant psychologist); location of the treatment delivery (patient home, NHS clinic); and referring clinical service (early intervention; adult mental health; inpatient).

In this study, decisions about the main subsamples for the multiple perspectives design will be made at the midpoint of recruitment. This enables the design to be responsive to the key dimensions of interest emerging from the accounts. These may relate to therapy completion rate or the participants’ views of therapy. However, there may be indications that the other contextual/identity features described above are sharpening participants’ experiences of the intervention. If these are deemed more important to contrast systematically, the subsamples will be stratified accordingly.