Design and evaluation of a technology supported mental resilience training

Abstract

Certain professionals are inherently at risk of experiencing traumatic events, and developing the anxiety disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result. The cost of PTSD is huge, both in terms of human pain and economics. Effective treatments such as exposure therapy do exist, but obviously prevention would be preferable. There is some research into training people to become more psychologically resilient, but this is still in an early stage. Supporting resilience training with technology may offer advantages such as reduced cost and logistics as compared to in vivo training, and being able to present stressors in a very controlled manner. Measuring effectiveness with technology may be more objective than the commonly used self-reporting questionnaires.

In this thesis one possible technology supported resilience training system was designed and evaluated. The system involved video annotation and the cognitive reappraisal paradigm, delivered through three different versions of a computer application that were developed for this purpose. Two novel ways aiming to measure resilience using a pictorial emotional Stroop task and the fear conditioned startle paradigm were evaluated.

Acceptance of the video annotation tool by the target group (military personnel and firefighters) was positive. Due to feasibility considerations its effectiveness could not be measured. Empirical validation of the measurement methods as a measurement of resilience was not successful, possibly as a result of selection bias in the participating sample and use of video material that was not sufficiently aversive.