Reducing Anxiety and Depression through Programs on a High Immersive Virtual Reality Headset

Abstract

The work is aimed at considering the influence of modern special training programs in virtual reality (VR) on personality anxiety in adolescence. Materials of empirical research obtained on a sample of students of 2-4 courses of Moscow and Smolensk universities are presented. Respondents aged from 19 to 24 years old participated in the study 1 (N=15) (using the training VR environment with a first-person avatar) and 2 (N=24) (using the training VR program with an anthropomorphic avatar (female) (third-person). To diagnose anxiety we used methods: Spielberger-Hanin Self-Assessment Anxiety Test, A.T. Beck Anxiety Scale. A single-factor experimental design with independent groups was used; dependent variables were different types of anxiety, independent variables were the parameters of subjects' work with the training VR-program of high immersiveness. The results show that the high level training VR environment has a significant effect on anxiety reduction. Both personal and situational anxiety, as well as the general level of anxiety, decreased. In the control samples, either anxiety decreases, but at a much lower level, or no change occurs. Psychosemantic analysis of consciousness indicates changes not only in the conscious plan (connections between connotative meanings), but also in unconscious attitudes about one's anxiety state (manifested in the triad of depression: decreased mood, ideomotor and motor retardation). In general, VR programs with avatars should be considered as effective technologies and means of changing functional personality properties, in particular anxiety.