Annotated Bibliography: Contemporary Psychology Theories and Information Technologies

Odenigbo, P. I., AlSlaity, A., & Orji, R. (2022). Augmented and virtual reality-driven interventions for healthy behavior change: A systematic review. ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences, 53-68. https://doi.org/10.1145/3505284.3529964

The first study was a systematic review of literature by Odenigbo et al. (2022) found in the central databases of Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library on the effectiveness of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications in the promotion of healthy behaviors. The authors screened 457 articles in total, 19 of which met the inclusion criteria of being published in English, using AR/VR for behavior change interventions between the years 2011–2021, and targeting alcohol use as the primary outcome. They also discovered that AR and VR have evolved as behavior-change cues and are affordable and popular with the interfaces and use of gamification among youths. However, there is a particular weakness in using only 19 studies for the given type of paperwork despite the intense focus on evidence throughout the extensive period. However, the paper indicates that the author is in support of the adoption of innovative technologies that would facilitate a change towards healthier practices among large populations.

Schueller, S. M., Hunter, J. F., Figueroa, C., & Aguilera, A. (2019). Use of digital mental health for marginalized and underserved populations. Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry, 6(3), 243-255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40501-019-00181-z

The second most relevant article was by Schueller et al. (2019), which conducted a systematic review of digital mental health interventions that focused on rural, ethnic, and homeless US populations. It has been found that these applications can be helpful in addressing demographic differences where there is a barrier to mental health care utilization. The authors also pointed out that benefits were observed concerning minority populations like African Americans, Latinx, and sexual minorities. Still, there are problems as well: the lack of contributions from specific stakeholders, the limited availability of broadband connections, the insufficient attention given to the issues faced by disadvantaged populations, and a shortage of randomized, controlled trials of CBT’s efficacy on a large scale. It affected the overall quality of the article as it did not outline the research methodology but stated that the utilization of digital tools could help redress injustices.

Strunk, D. R., Lopez, H., & DeRubeis, R. J. (2006). Depressive symptoms are associated with unrealistic negative predictions of future life events. Behavior Research and Therapy, 44(6), 861-882. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.07.001

Strunk et al. (2006) tried to establish if depression in any way affects the tendency of people to give differential prognoses of future events. A total of 153 college students were recruited online and completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms and probable life events listings, risk estimates of 40 future positive and negative events, and event occurrence after 30 days. According to the findings, highly depressed people had a negative outlook, which was determined by predicting adverse events rather than having a positive outlook, as identified by non-depressed people predicting positive events. Strengths included employing a standard depression self-assessment tool with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.94, which is associated with Beck’s Depressive Realism Theory. The limitations were that participants were recruited via the Internet without accurate self-diagnoses of depression. The study is informative in its contribution to understanding the effects of depression on pessimistic tendencies in future evaluations.