Development of VR Environments for Studying Social Anxiety in Youth

Abstract

Social Anxiety Disorder(SAD) is a mental disorder rapidly growing in prevalence. At the time of writing this paper, slightly more than 1 in 20 people is afflicted with SAD. SADs most often start to occur in a person’s childhood, at which it is almost most effective to be treated. To make sure that it can be treated and identified a lot of research is done into SADs. However, performing research in the real world is difficult as it needs a lot of actors and risks the participants experiencing negative emotions. To solve these problems Virtual Reality (VR) is used to experiment in. Most VRenvironments are created by independent companies for a high price and can rarely be adapted to a researcher’s own needs. This study has created and evaluated the usability and effectiveness of a Virtual Reality (VR) tool designed to assist researchers with no need for IT skills in setting up experiments for individuals with SAD. The research involved a thematic analysis of user feedback collected during the setup and execution of VR-based experiments. Key findings highlight that while the tool’s interface is generally intuitive, issues related to user experience, such as unclear UI elements and limited control over experimental settings, were identified. Participants appreciated the ease of configuration but expressed a desire for more detailed options, particularly concerning the customization of Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) and the overall experimental environment. The immersive qualities of the VR scenarios were praised, though certain aspects, such as the lack of environmental details and inconsistencies in NPC behaviour, detracted from the overall experience. Additionally, the data analysis component was found to be accessible but could benefit from more comprehensive outputs and clearer documentation. The study concludes that while the VR tool has significant potential for SAD research, further refinement is needed to address the identified usability and functionality issues. Future work should focus on enhancing the tool’s features, improving the clarity of its interface, and ensuring the reliability of the VR environment to better support researchers in conducting meaningful experiments.