Mapping the cognitive behavioural model to Virtual Reality scenarios for people with substance use disorder and intellectual disabilities
Theme: Technological interventions in increasing well-being
Type of research: Mixed-method
Description:
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a widespread used therapy in addiction care for people with substance use disorder (SUD). The focus of this therapy is to categorize patient’s risk situations and accompanying thoughts, feelings, behaviour and consequences in a schedule1 and to replace negative coping techniques by helping ones. CBT heavily relies on the capacity to reflect on behaviour and generalization of acquired skills. This aspect of the therapy however poses difficulties for certain populations, such as people with low cognitive abilities. To make this therapy more suitable for this target group, the focus should shift from talking about thoughts and feelings towards doing and experiencing. One suitable approach to accomplish this is to make use of Virtual Reality, in which patients can practice with real-life situations.
The VR software of CleVR is a promising tool to implement in cognitive behavioural therapy for people with SUD and intellectual disabilities (ID). CleVR offers several VR environments identified as possible risk situations for people with SUD, such as a supermarket, a living room or a pub. The software offers the possibility to simply walk around in a 3D environment or to enact in roleplaying with virtual characters.
The challenge is to design VR scenario’s in such a way that they are based on the principles of the cognitive behavioural model of CBT. In this assignment you will be performing a systematic literature review and interview experts in the field to determine how aspects of the cognitive behavioural model can be implemented in VR exercises or scenarios. Based on your preferences you will be either formulating specific requirements for CBT-VR scenarios, design CBT-VR exercises and/ or evaluate CBT-VR scenarios with experts in the field.
Footnote:
1 In Dutch: G-schema: gebeurtenissen, gedachten, gevoelens, gedrag en gevolgen.
References:
- CleVR: https://clevr.net/
Who are we looking for?
Preferably Dutch students or students who master the Dutch language due to the interviews that need to be conducted with experts in the field.