With its immersive simulation-based capabilities, the extensive use of VR in psychology can help people overcome anxiety and develop new social skills.
Normally, building social skills in an individual involves traditional exercises such as role-playing, social skills practice in front of a group, and directed training. These practical exercises have proven to be helpful in the past. Ideally, training and education regarding the cultivation of social skills must be carried out in the real world. As you can imagine, that would be impractical. If you try to recreate the real world in a training room, the entire exercise would feel staged.
VR involves the creation of an immersive simulation that enables individuals to “find themselves in a new world” by simply wearing specialized headgear. While earlier, VR was seen solely as a tool for entertainment and gaming, today the technology has applications in fields as diverse as archaeology, event management, and robotics. The use of VR in psychology to eliminate phobias is also a fast-growing concept. Similarly, technology can play its part in social skill development in individuals too.
Improving Body Language
Body language is integral to how well an individual can communicate or leave an impression in front of others in shared spaces. For example, interviewers check an individual’s eye movements, posture, talking speed, and other similar attributes while rating job-seeking candidates during a one-on-one interview. After all, their gait and mannerisms can speak volumes about a person’s personality and, by extension, their hire-worthiness.
In front of a big group of people, people with low self-esteem and poor social skills may simply struggle to keep their body movements and tics in check, ruining their chances of gelling well with the collective. This is where the elements of VR in psychology can improve the scenario for such individuals. In a VR simulation, such individuals don a virtual avatar and can see others in the simulation in their respective digitized avatars. Without any “person” to look at, individuals can improve their posture and reduce their nervous tics.
Over a period of time, the simulation will give individuals enough freedom to optimize the ways in which they use their bodies to communicate with others.
Boosting Public Speaking
The biggest reason people suffer from stage fright or the inability to speak is the fear of being watched by several others. In a VR simulation, the concept of people becomes redundant. Instead, an individual in a VR headset can only see probably cartoon characters of real-world people in this digital realm. The cartoon versions of people are not as intimidating for such individuals. Over a period of time, individuals will overcome their fear of public speaking with the help of VR in psychology.
There are several other ways that either use just VR or use the technology in combination with other technologies, such as AI and robotics, to help people cultivate social skills.
