In session virtual reality use for public speaking anxiety : A randomized controlled trial

• Fear of public speaking is common and for some individuals this interferes significantly with the person's life and causes marked distress. We wanted to test a newly developed virtual reality assisted 1-session in-person treatment (3 hours). The therapist guided session consisted of a series of behavioral experiments based on the expectancy violation principle. This was followed by a 4-week booster intervention delivered via the internet. Following a diagnostic interview a total of 50 individuals with a score of ≥ 60 on the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety questionnaire were randomized to a treatment or a control condition. A total of 78% also met criteria for social anxiety disorder. Considering only having had one treatment session in-person the preliminary results were promising with a between group effect size on the primary outcome (Public Speaking Anxiety Scale) of Cohen’s d=1.32 before commencing the internet-based booster program. Four weeks later the between-group effect size was d=1.90. However, on the secondary outcome measures the effect sizes were more often moderate than large. At the time of the conference 6-month follow-up data will be available in addition to the already collected post-assessment data (analyzed according to the intention-to-treat principle).

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

virtual reality

expectancy violation principle

fear of public speaking

Psychology

psykologi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)