Virtual Reality and Music Therapy's Impact on People's Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

People’s psychological well-being is essential to study since past studies have indicated that negative mood can lead to many other significant health problems. Virtual reality and music therapy have both been used in the past for therapy but there is still limited research when using them together. This study examined the effectiveness of VR vs. 2D online interventions with various stimuli (audiovisual vs. visual only vs. audio only) to assess which interventions were effective. Additionally, this study examined which groups displayed the highest amount of presence to understand what elements are essential when increasing attention. The results suggest that even though VR participants generally experienced more presence and had similar benefits for positive mood, 2D groups were the only groups effective for reducing negative mood. These results suggest that there could be other psychological and theoretical considerations that may play a role into determining what online experiences are effective.