Abstract
Virtual reality has been used effectively to promote relaxation and reduce stress. It is possible to find two main approaches to achieve such aims across the literature. The first one is focused on generic environments filled with relaxing “narratives” to induce control over one’s own body and physiological response, while the second one engages the user in virtual reality-mediated activities to empower his/her own abilities to regulate emotion. The scope of the present contribution is to extend the discourse on VR use to promote relaxation, by proposing a third approach. This would be based on VR with personalized content, based on user research to identify important life events. As a second step, distinctive features of such events may be rendered with symbols, activities or other virtual environments contents. According to literature, it is possible that such an approach would obtain more sophisticated and long-lasting relaxation in users. The present contribution explores this innovative theoretical proposal and its potential applications within future research and interventions.
Highlights
Virtual reality (VR) has been successfully employed to promote relaxation and reduce stress, and it has notably matured trough time, showing a relevant potential in improving and regulating emotional well-being.Two main approaches aiming at achieving relaxation, stress reduction and emotion regulation can be found in the literature
The approach proposed in the present contribution promises to be an innovative advancement in the field of VR to positively manipulate the emotional experience of people
It is important to consider that the pVR approach is still in its infancy, or better, here it has been outlined in nuce only
Summary
Virtual reality (VR) has been successfully employed to promote relaxation and reduce stress, and it has notably matured trough time, showing a relevant potential in improving and regulating emotional well-being. In the present contribution a third approach is proposed, which integrates and extends those mentioned above, but is based on its specific methodological assumptions This third perspective would propose a VR based on personalized contents, built on distinctive features picked-up by users’ memories of relevant life-events, and on adaptive virtual reality. Within the rVR approach, natural scenarios and visual or auditory natural elements have been frequently employed, showing a fair efficacy in several contexts
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