With a high and increasing number of people suffering from mental illness, the need for better treatments is high. Based on the skills and experiences of psychologists the aim of this study is to provide knowledge about how virtual reality can be used in the treatment of phobias, as well as to generate knowledge for a future implementation of the technology. To do this, we decided to conduct a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews. By using a snowball selection, we got access to five psychologists who contributed with their unique perspectives based on their education, professional background and experience of virtual reality. Our results showed an overall positive attitude toward how virtual reality can contribute and support today's CBT-treatments. With one of the major opportunities being that virtual reality gives the therapist access to control and flexibility that can be difficult to achieve in a regular exposure treatment. But it requires virtual reality experiences of a higher quality than those existing today for psychological purposes. Which can result in the patient's experience of the treatment not being optimal, when the experience is not sufficiently immersive. Our study concludes that virtual reality should not be seen as a substitute for today's CBT-treatments. Instead, VR should be used as a tool and supplement it, which has the potential to overcome obstacles and improve parts of a treatment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-170867 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Viklund, Andreas, Svensson, David |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Informatik Student Paper Bachelor (INFSPB) ; 2020.02 |
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