Tsolakidis, Spyridon;
(2024)
Speaking to one’s younger self - A Virtual Reality Assisted Intervention for Self- Compassion: A Quantitative Study.
Doctoral thesis (D.Clin.Psy), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Background: This study aimed to explore the effect of utilising a Virtual Reality (VR) assisted intervention on increasing self-compassion in healthy individuals. More specifically, the intervention paradigm involved participants speaking to their younger selves while embodying digital avatars. It was hypothesised that following the intervention all participants would experience an increase in self-compassion and positive affect and a reduction in self-criticism, fear of compassion and negative affect and that these effects would be greater for participants with personalised avatars. Methods: Fifty-four participants were randomly allocated to either speak to a child avatar that resembled them when they were younger (based on pictures provided by participants) or a generic-looking child avatar, while embodying personalised adult avatars. Participants were immersed in VR via headsets and offered compassion to their younger selves. Once participants completed this task, they switched their perspective by embodying the child avatars and then they experienced the compassion back by watching the recording of their adult avatar. Results: The results of this study showed that participants experienced an increase in self-compassion and positive affect as well as a decrease in self-criticism following the VR-assisted intervention. No significant effects were found for fear of self-compassion or negative affect. Contrary to the initial hypotheses, the child avatar that participants engaged with (individualised or generic) did not seem to affect the observed effect of this study. Discussion: This study produced promising results for the use of a novel virtual reality assisted intervention and its efficacy on improving self-compassion and reducing self-criticism. Possible explanations of the findings regarding the type of childhood avatar not having an effect on the observed changes, including avatar-user closeness and the proteus effect, are discussed.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | D.Clin.Psy |
| Title: | Speaking to one’s younger self - A Virtual Reality Assisted Intervention for Self- Compassion: A Quantitative Study |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197024 |
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