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Clinical Advances in Psychology and Psychological Distress in Real and Virtual Contexts

A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Mental Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 8939

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gennaro Ruggiero

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Immersive Virtual Reality, CS-IVR, Department of Psychology, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Viale Ellittico, 31, 81100 Caserta, Italy
Interests: psychology; cognitive psychology; neuropsychology; environmental psychology; blindness; social cognition; spatial memory; psychological distress
Prof. Dr. Tina Iachini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Immersive Virtual Reality, CS-IVR, Department of Psychology, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Viale Ellittico, 31, 81100 Caserta, Italy
Interests: cognitive psychology; cognitive science; environmental psychology; blindness; social cognition; imagery; spatial memory
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Stressors such as work, life, and emotions all cause great psychological distress to people. Anxiety, depression, insecurity, fear, depression, loneliness, and stigma are common features of psychological distress, and high levels of it are more serious risk factors for mental health disorders. These factors can also play a critical role in how we modulate our interpersonal social space with others in both real and simulated (social media, virtual, etc.) contexts. Therefore, we should pay attention to people's psychological states in a timely manner, and take effective measures to improve, enhance, or compensate for defective or impaired physical and mental functions. Such measures may include moderate exercise and maintaining a healthy environment, or appropriate medication, physical therapy, or psychological treatment in traditional and virtual contexts.

We invite you to submit articles or reviews to this Special Issue, with a focus on research investigating mental health and coping in children and adults that will enable the development and implementation of more effective interventions in the future. Whilst we invite topics in this field, submissions are not limited only to this subject.

Dr. Gennaro Ruggiero
Prof. Dr. Tina Iachini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • psychology
  • psychological distress
  • anxiety
  • depression
  • insecurity
  • fear
  • depression
  • loneliness
  • stigma
  • mental health disorders
  • psychological state
  • exercise
  • medication
  • physical therapy
  • psychological treatment
  • interventions
  • children and adults
  • interpersonal social space
  • virtual and real contexts

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 1443 KiB  
Article
Interaction with Virtual Humans and Effect of Emotional Expressions: Anger Matters!
by Mariachiara Rapuano, Tina Iachini and Gennaro Ruggiero
J. Clin. Med. 2023, 12(4), 1339; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12041339 - 8 Feb 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2107
Abstract
Today we are experiencing a hybrid real-virtual society in which the interaction with virtual humans is normal and “quasi-social”. Understanding the way we react to the interaction with virtual agents and the impact of emotions on social dynamics in the virtual world is [...] Read more.
Today we are experiencing a hybrid real-virtual society in which the interaction with virtual humans is normal and “quasi-social”. Understanding the way we react to the interaction with virtual agents and the impact of emotions on social dynamics in the virtual world is fundamental. Therefore, in this study we investigated the implicit effect of emotional information by adopting a perceptual discrimination task. Specifically, we devised a task that explicitly required perceptual discrimination of a target while involving distance regulation in the presence of happy, neutral, or angry virtual agents. In two Immersive Virtual Reality experiments, participants were instructed to discriminate a target on the virtual agents’ t-shirts, and they had to provide the response by stopping the virtual agents (or themselves) at the distance where they could identify the target. Thus, facial expressions were completely irrelevant to the perceptual task. The results showed that the perceptual discrimination implied a longer response time when t-shirts were worn by angry rather than happy or neutral virtual agents. This suggests that angry faces interfered with the explicit perceptual task people had to perform. From a theoretical standpoint, this anger-superiority effect could reflect an ancestral fear/avoidance mechanism that prompts automatic defensive reactions and bypasses other cognitive processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Clinical Advances in Psychology and Psychological Distress in Real and Virtual Contexts)
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Review

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13 pages, 1362 KiB  
Review
Using Ecological Momentary Assessments to Study How Daily Fluctuations in Psychological States Impact Stress, Well-Being, and Health
by Summer Mengelkoch, Daniel P. Moriarity, Anne Marie Novak, Michael P. Snyder, George M. Slavich and Shahar Lev-Ari
J. Clin. Med. 2024, 13(1), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13010024 - 19 Dec 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4631
Abstract
Despite great interest in how dynamic fluctuations in psychological states such as mood, social safety, energy, present-focused attention, and burnout impact stress, well-being, and health, most studies examining these constructs use retrospective assessments with relatively long time-lags. Here, we discuss how ecological momentary [...] Read more.
Despite great interest in how dynamic fluctuations in psychological states such as mood, social safety, energy, present-focused attention, and burnout impact stress, well-being, and health, most studies examining these constructs use retrospective assessments with relatively long time-lags. Here, we discuss how ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) address methodological issues associated with retrospective reports to help reveal dynamic associations between psychological states at small timescales that are often missed in stress and health research. In addition to helping researchers characterize daily and within-day fluctuations and temporal dynamics between different health-relevant processes, EMAs can elucidate mechanisms through which interventions reduce stress and enhance well-being. EMAs can also be used to identify changes that precede critical health events, which can in turn be used to deliver ecological momentary interventions, or just-in-time interventions, to help prevent such events from occurring. To enable this work, we provide examples of scales and single-item questions used in EMA studies, recommend study designs and statistical approaches that capitalize on EMA data, and discuss limitations of EMA methods. In doing so, we aim to demonstrate how, when used carefully, EMA methods are well poised to greatly advance our understanding of how intrapersonal dynamics affect stress levels, well-being, and human health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Clinical Advances in Psychology and Psychological Distress in Real and Virtual Contexts)
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Other

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14 pages, 2386 KiB  
Protocol
Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial Testing the Efficacy of a Transdiagnostic Virtual Reality-Based Intervention for the Reduction of Unhealthy Lifestyles and Behaviors in the General Population
by Valentina Gardini, Chiara Ruini, Eliana Tossani, Silvana Grandi and Elena Tomba
J. Clin. Med. 2023, 12(23), 7470; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12237470 - 2 Dec 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1286
Abstract
Virtual reality (VR) is a valuable tool for the treatment and prevention of psychiatric disorders and dysfunctional behaviors. Although VR software is mainly developed following a disorder-specific approach, this randomized controlled trial (RCT) will test the efficacy of a new transdiagnostic VR application [...] Read more.
Virtual reality (VR) is a valuable tool for the treatment and prevention of psychiatric disorders and dysfunctional behaviors. Although VR software is mainly developed following a disorder-specific approach, this randomized controlled trial (RCT) will test the efficacy of a new transdiagnostic VR application (H.O.M.E. VR-based psychological intervention) in improving dysfunctional behaviors, three transdiagnostic factors concurrently (emotion regulation, experiential avoidance, and psychological flexibility), and stress. Three groups screened as at-risk for nicotine dependence, alcohol abuse, and eating disorders will be assigned to the H.O.M.E. VR intervention and compared to a waiting-list (WL) condition. Participants will be assessed before and after the H.O.M.E. intervention/WL and at the 3- and 6-month follow-ups in the levels of the displayed dysfunctional behavior, the three transdiagnostic factors, and stress. Changes in dysfunctional behaviors, transdiagnostic factors, and stress in each population VR group and differences in such improvements between each population of the VR and WL groups will be evaluated using mixed-model repeated measure analyses of variance. It is expected that, after the H.O.M.E. intervention and at follow-ups, participants will display improvements in physical and psychological health compared to controls. The H.O.M.E. protocol is expected to result in a cost-effective option to tackle cognitive–behavioral factors shared among several psychopathologies and dysfunctional behaviors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Clinical Advances in Psychology and Psychological Distress in Real and Virtual Contexts)
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