Characteristics of subjective well-being and communication in individuals with social anxiety disorder assessed through virtual reality tasks

Abstract

Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) have difficulty coping with social situations, resulting in a diminished quality of life. This study aimed to investigate subjective well-being and communication-related characteristics using virtual reality (VR) tasks. Twenty-eight individuals with SAD and 25 healthy controls performed VR subjective well-being tasks (recognizing experience-based problems, expressing a future self-based success story, and expressing strengths) and VR communication tasks (exploring the communication style, practicing functional communication, and expressing empathy). The SAD group reported lower anti-difficulty, resolvability, and strength utilization scores and showed lower communication score in response to all dysfunctional communication styles (placating, blaming, computing, distracting) than the control group. These results suggest that diminished quality of life in individuals with SAD can be measured in terms of subjective well-being and communication using VR tasks. Multiple training regimes, including repeated execution of these tasks, may be necessary to improve their quality of life.