Personalized Virtual Reality for Promoting Well-Being and Psychological Flexibility in General Practitioners

Keywords

• Virtual reality
• Transformative Experience
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• General Practitioners
• Personal values
• Committed action
• Psychological flexibility

Lead sponsor

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart is the lead sponsor of 227 studies on the registry; 28 are open to participants now.

Study arms

• Experimental
  Experimental group

  Other: Transformative Virtual Reality Experience and ACT for General Practitioners

Interventions

• OtherTransformative Virtual Reality Experience and ACT for General Practitioners

  This intervention consists of an individual, in-person session in which each participant engages in a 10-minute transformative Virtual Reality (VR) experience entitled "The River and the Leaf", delivered through the Meta Quest 3 headset. Drawing on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) metaphors, participants are guided to reflect on key aspects of the experience, their professional challenges, and the personal resources available to them. Following the VR session, participants are supported in clarifying the values that guide their everyday actions. After the in-person session, all participants are encouraged to identify and implement committed actions aligned with their values over the subsequent two weeks, supported by two dedicated audio tracks.

Primary outcomes

1. The Comprehensive assessment of ACT (CompACT)

   This self-report scale was developed by Francis et al. (2016; Giovannetti et al., 2022) to measure psychological flexibility. The scale consists of 23 items, which can be answered using a 6-point Likert scale, where 0 indicates "completely disagree" and 6 "completely agree." The questionnaire is divided into three subscales: Openness to Experience (OE), Behavioral Awareness (BA), and Valued Action (VA), which correspond to the three pillars of psychological flexibility. Higher scores on the CompACT indicate greater psychological flexibility.

   Time frame: This questionnaire will be administered at T0 (baseline) and at T2 (post-intervention, i.e., two weeks after the individual in-person session).

2. Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF)

   This self-report scale was developed by Keyes (2002; Petrillo et al., 2015) to measure emotional, social, and psychological well-being. The scale consists of 14 items, which can be answered using a 6-point Likert scale, where 0 indicates "never" and 5 "every day." To assess the three dimensions, the questionnaire is divided into three subscales: the Emotional Well-Being scale (EWB, items 1-3), the Social Well-Being scale (SWB, items 4-8), and the Psychological Well-Being scale (PWB, items 9-14). Higher scores on the MHC-SF indicate greater well-being.

   Time frame: This questionnaire will be administered at T0 (baseline) and at T2 (post-intervention, i.e., two weeks after the individual in-person session).

3. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for the assessment of emotions

   This scale aims to measure the intensity of positive and negative emotions (joy, contentment, pride, love, compassion, awe, hope, gratitude, sadness, fear, anger, admiration, inspiration, and awe) (Shiota et al., 2006; Cloos et al., 2023). The intensity can be expressed using a Likert scale, where 0 corresponds to "not at all" and 10 to "very much."

   Time frame: This questionnaire will be administered at T0 (baseline) and at T1 (immediately after the VR experience).

4. Ad hoc questionnaire to investigate the impact of the VR transformative experience

   This 6-item questionnaire is designed to evaluate the transformative experience, its pleasantness, and its impact on self-expansion. Responses are provided on a 7-point Likert scale, where 1 indicates "not at all" and 7 indicates "very much."

   Time frame: This questionnaire will be administered at T1 (immediately after the VR experience).

Secondary outcomes

1. Slater Usoh Steed Presence Questionnaire (SUS)

   This self-report scale was developed by Usoh et al. (2000) to assess the user's sense of presence in the virtual environment. The instrument consists of 6 items, which are rated on a 7-point Likert scale. Higher scores on the SUS indicate a greater sense of presence.

   Time frame: This questionnaire will be administered at T1 (immediately after the VR experience).

2. Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ)

   This questionnaire is designed to assess valued living and is divided into two sections (Wilson et al., 2002; Miselli et al., 2008). In the first section, participants are asked to rate the importance of 10 life domains on a 10-point Likert scale (where 1 = not at all important and 10 = extremely important). The life domains are: (1) family, (2) marriage/partnership/intimate relationships, (3) parenting, (4) friendship, (5) work, (6) education, (7) recreation, (8) spirituality, (9) citizenship, and (10) self-care. The second section asks participants to rate the extent to which their actions over the past week were consistent with each value/domain. Responses are given on a 10-point Likert scale (where 1 = not at all consistent and 10 = extremely consistent).

   Time frame: This questionnaire will be administered at T1 (after the VR experience) and at T2 (post-intervention, i.e., two weeks after the individual in-person session).

3. Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)

   This questionnaire was developed by Maslach et al. (1997) to measure levels of burnout. It consists of 16 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale, where 0 corresponds to "never" and 6 to "every day." The questionnaire is divided into three subscales: Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (DP), and Reduced Personal Accomplishment (PA), which represent the three core dimensions of burnout.

   Time frame: This questionnaire will be administered at T0 (baseline) and at T2 (post-intervention, i.e., two weeks after the individual in-person session).