Design and Validation of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy Software for Treatment of Flying Phobia

Subject Areas : Educational

Javad Rasti ¹ , gholamreza manshaee ² , Parvin Eslami ³

1 - Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
2 - Academic member Islamic Azad University of Isfahan (Khorasgan), Isfahan, Iran.
3 - Psychology, Islamic Azad University of Isfahan (Khorasgan), Isfahan, Iran.

Received: 2018-07-03 Accepted : 2019-01-09 Published : 2018-12-22

Keywords: flying phobia, exposure therapy, content validation, virtual reality,

Abstract :

This study wasaimed at designing and validation of a software for treating flying phobia, based on real recorded VR 360-degree films of an entire flying. At the content validity stage of the software, the population consisted of all phobia therapists and computer and media specialists, and 9 of them were selected on purpose as the samples. At the introductory intervention stage, the population comprised all subjects with flying phobia, and 10 of them were, then, randomly assigned to test and control groups. The research tools were a 360-degree camera, a VR display, and Bornas’ Fear of Flight Scale. For content validation, the software was presented to the specialists and their ratings were analyzed, which led to Cohen's Kappa Coefficient of 0.78.This seems to fit well in terms of content validity. Also, covariance analysis at the introductory intervention stage indicated that this software significantly was effective in diminishing fear of flying (P < 0.05).

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