VIRTUAL REALITY: CONCEPT, HISTORY AND APPLICATIONS - DOUBTS - 2025

The Virtual Reality is a new technology that allows professional to create a cyber space where the patient can interact with different objects or virtually simulated characters.

It would be like an interface created where the person is immersed in a 3D simulation that has been generated by computer and where they can interact in a real way in real time.

In this way, the simulated environment is intended to replace reality and the person has the feeling of being inside that artificial world.

In Virtual Reality, the person has the feeling that they are physically in the environment that is being generated virtually and can interact with it in real time.

It can be considered as a kind of "laboratory" where the behavior, thoughts and emotions of the person can be studied and it can be useful in some dysfunctional methodological aspects in some psychological experiments.

The three fundamental characteristics of Virtual Reality are: the possibility in real time, the complete immersion where contact with reality and interaction with the elements is lost.

The term was coined in 1986 by Jaron Lanier.

The difference between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

It is important to learn to distinguish between Virtual Reality, which is what we are dealing with here, and Augmented Reality.

The latter implies introducing virtual elements into the real world. For this, different images, objectives or virtual situations are created that are included within the real world.

In this way, you see the real world but at the same time those elements created by cybernetics are also included. Obviously, it is based on the sense that it has to be useful to the patient.

It is different because in Virtual Reality the context or the situation permeates the entire experience of the subject, so that all his perceptual channels are placed in him. It is your reality.

However, in the case of Augmented Reality, the experience that the subject lives through the inclusion of virtual elements complements the real experience that is also happening, that is, the true reality.

Virtual Reality in Psychology

The reason why new technologies and virtual reality in particular in Psychology are being used more and more, is because they are proposed as a tool to develop and benefit people in any area of ​​their lives.

New technologies reach every corner of our lives. The first Virtual Reality platforms that were created did so for large industries that wanted to design scenarios for professionals where they could train in different situations.

The first designs in Virtual Reality psychology were for anxiety disorders. When its efficacy was proven against control groups, it was proposed to expand the range to more complex disorders.

Specifically, the first study of Virtual Reality in psychological disorders focused on acrophobia, exposing the person to virtual situations that caused anxiety.

Its use is even more important if we take into account that Virtual Reality is presented, on many occasions, as an effective alternative for the treatment of disorders in which traditional techniques were ineffective.

In addition, with respect to exposure in imagination, for example, it also provides advantages, since there are individual differences in imagination (people who have more difficulties) and provides a sense of presence that does not give the imagination.

Applications of Virtual Reality in psychological disorders

We have already commented previously that Virtual Reality has been developed for different areas of psychology.

With regard to clinical psychology and psychological disorders, different systems have been developed using new technologies to improve people's health status and thus help psychology professionals in treatment.

a) Anxiety disorders

For anxiety disorders, one of the most effective treatments is exposure, that is, gradually and systematically facing what the subject fears.

However, some patients abandon this treatment or reject it because, for example, it is too aversive for them, with which we find a group of patients with difficulties when intervening.

Virtual Reality makes it possible to intervene in patients with anxiety disorders in a virtual environment, so that the person can interact with this space and with objects in the same way that they could in a real environment.

And thus, as the feared objects or situations are not "real", patients who do not accept the exposure may accept this way of dealing with them to a greater degree.

Different studies argue that many people prefer exposure in virtual environments over real or in vivo exposure.

In this way, Virtual Reality has been used in the face of, for example, spider phobia, flying phobia, claustrophobia or agoraphobia.

In 1998 (Botella et al, 2007) they designed the first treatment for claustrophobia and later others followed where they put different scenarios such as a room with windows that opened and closed, another room without windows or an elevator.

For example, in the case of agoraphobia, different typically agoraphobic situations were designed, such as the subway or the shopping center, and interoceptive experiences were simulated at the same time.

We can conclude, therefore, that Virtual Reality has been shown to be effective for different anxiety disorders such as fear of heights or claustrophobia, where the results are maintained over time.

Also in phobia of small animals, phobia of flying, phobia of driving, fear of speaking in public, panic disorder and agoraphobia.

b) Eating behavior and body image disorders

Eating Disorders are a serious health problem. Both Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa involve a pathological desire of the person to be thin.

Besides Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa, food simulators for obesity and Binge Eating Disorder have also been developed.

Virtual Reality has also worked for distortions in body image. It is very useful for distorting people with Eating Disorders.

Different advantages are included within the use of Virtual Reality for this problem, starting with the ease of defining one's own body image construct, which is difficult to define and operationalize.

Through Virtual Reality, we give the person the possibility of designing their own image in 3D (at the same time that the psychologist can visualize it).

Virtual Reality allows observing the body in its entirety, where the person has it face to face, as well as evaluating it by specific body areas.

Also in the case of body image, Virtual Reality has shown its effectiveness compared to traditional first-choice treatments of a cognitive-behavioral nature.

It is effective because people with Eating Disorders feel that the computer is a “more impartial judge” and therefore, their therapeutic adherence increases and they feel more inclined to accept changes in body image.

c) Chemical and behavioral addictions

Some researchers have also made applications through Virtual Reality to work on addictions to substances such as nicotine or heroin, as well as for pathological gambling.

For example, in pathological gambling the patient accesses scenarios with related situations such as casinos, so that they can learn to control impulse.

d) Health Psychology

Other applications of Virtual Reality focus on the field of health psychology, such as the pain associated with some medical procedures such as burns.

e) Stress-related disorders

The use of Virtual Reality has also been used for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to produce traumatic events for the person, such as war fighters or the terrorist attacks of September 11, with results that show that it could be useful for reducing symptoms.

Also for adaptive disorders or pathological grief it could be useful. In both cases, they are people with complicated life situations that they have not been able to resolve.

f) Some childhood disorders

For example, some virtual worlds have been designed for Autism Spectrum Disorder and also to assess and treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

g) Sexual disorders

For example, some researchers have reported the development of Virtual Reality from the psychoanalytic stream to treat erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation and report good results with maintenance of achievements at 6 months.

Advantages of virtual reality

Virtual Reality offers some advantages over other techniques such as, as we mentioned in a previous section, in vivo exposure:

1. Many people prefer Virtual Reality to expose themselves before in vivo exposure, which would allow to act with those patients who do not adhere to therapy due to this type of inconvenience.

2. Likewise, Virtual Reality allows the task to be carried out to be repeated as many times as necessary without modifying any of its parameters, since they are artificially controlled.

3. Situations can be further graded. It is possible to graduate the object in a very precise way taking into account the individual differences of the patients and to design everything to suit them.

4. To make a presentation, it is not necessary to access other spaces and it can be done in the consultation itself or the place where the psychotherapy is being carried out (for example, in the case of flying phobia, it would not be necessary to get on a plane).

5. It favors ethical aspects, since by not leaving the consultation, your right to privacy is guaranteed.

6. It favors the motivation for therapeutic adherence in many cases, for example, in Eating Disorders. In these cases, patients feel safer in virtual environments and their motivation for psychotherapy increases.

7. It can be used in problems that could not be treated otherwise (for example, in the case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, where it cannot be returned to the situation).

8. In addition to asking the person what happens to him, we can obtain information by visualizing in the first person what happens when the person is in the problematic moment.

9. Control of the situation, since the therapist knows at all times what is happening, the elements that the patient faces, what disturbs him…

10. Allow the person to feel competent. It gives a lot of information about personal effectiveness. It is so flexible that it allows you to create different scenarios where you can develop your own expectations.

11. Allows you to perform a certain behavior without waiting for it to occur in real life (for example, speaking at an audience).

12. It allows creating situations that go beyond one's own reality to facilitate learning.

In addition, various investigations have shown that Virtual Reality treatments are more effective than controls and that they are just as effective as the first-choice treatment, that is, in vivo exposure.

Does Virtual Reality Have Disadvantages?

Virtual Reality also has some disadvantages, such as:

1. The economic cost, given that the psychotherapist needs to have technology and different virtual environments to work on the different problems, which makes it difficult to use it in clinical practice. Work is being done so that in the future its cost is lower and suitable for more public.

2. Still some virtual worlds are rudimentary.

3. It may have some side effects, like disorientation, dizziness, nausea. These are mild effects that disappear quickly. In addition, the person can take precautions such as those taken in motion sickness when traveling.

4. There is still more research to be done and more data on efficacy, in addition to research on many other issues.

5. Psychologists are not familiar with this technique, so if applied, they should be trained for it.

conclusion

The new information and communication technologies are considered as useful and effective tools to solve psychological problems.

They have only recently begun to develop, and are embodied as the first steps in the development of future treatments.

All the advances that take place around Virtual Reality will result in the improvement of the health of patients and a more complete care.

Virtual Reality has been growing by leaps and bounds and although it is still not possible for everyone to access it, given its economic costs, as it progresses in its development, its costs will also decrease and it will be available to all audiences.

What is certain is that in psychology it has evolved in a remarkable way and has proven its usefulness in numerous investigations.

References

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3. Bottle, C., García-Palacios, A., Baños, R., and Quero, S. (2007). Virtual Reality and Psychological Treatments. Notebooks of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychiatry, 82, 17-31.
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