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Measuring the Effectiveness of Virtual Reality for Stress Reduction: Psychometric Evaluation of the ERMES Project

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Extended Reality (XR Salento 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14218))

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  • The original version of chapter 32 was revised: two authors’ names were displayed incorrectly due to a tagging error. This has been corrected. The correction to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43401-3_36

Abstract

Among all the technologies that make up the Digital Psychology intervention, Virtual Reality (VR) represents a decisive paradigm of innovation since it allows to work in terms of prevention and monitoring of many psychological issues, such as stress, anxiety, depression and burnout. This paper presents ERMES project “Virtual Reality to promote the well-being of vulnerable people within Hospitals", and a preliminary psychometric assessment of the results obtained from its first experimentation. Specifically, the main goal is to provide a tool that can act on stress levels by practicing Mindfulness sessions, virtual museum exploration, and Art Therapy activities, with the possibility of safely sharing the experience with other patients. During the experimental phase, clinical interviews and psychometric tests were carried out in order to assess the impact of VR therapy after participating in the experimental protocol. This first analysis shows significant changes in the stress levels, that have to be confirmed by the biosignals data acquired during the experimentation, that still needs to be evaluated.

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Change history

  • 05 September 2023

    A correction has been published.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Science and Technology, Polytechnic University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Giovanni D’Errico

  2. Department of Engineering for Innovation, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Maria Cristina Barba, Carola Gatto, Benito Luigi Nuzzo, Valerio De Luca & Lucio Tommaso De Paolis

  3. Department of Health Psychology, Nursing Home Prof. Petrucciani, Lecce, Italy

    Fabiana Nuccetelli

Authors
  1. Giovanni D’Errico
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  2. Maria Cristina Barba
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  3. Carola Gatto
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  4. Benito Luigi Nuzzo
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  5. Fabiana Nuccetelli
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  6. Valerio De Luca
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  7. Lucio Tommaso De Paolis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carola Gatto .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Lucio Tommaso De Paolis

  2. University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Pasquale Arpaia

  3. CNR-STIIMA, Lecco, Italy

    Marco Sacco

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D’Errico, G. et al. (2023). Measuring the Effectiveness of Virtual Reality for Stress Reduction: Psychometric Evaluation of the ERMES Project. In: De Paolis, L.T., Arpaia, P., Sacco, M. (eds) Extended Reality. XR Salento 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14218. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43401-3_32

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43401-3_32

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-43400-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-43401-3

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