Ethical issues for the use of virtual reality in the psychological sciences

Virtual reality (VR) has undergone a transition in the past few years that has taken it out of the realm of expensive toy and into that of functional technology. Although media hype may have oversold VR’s potential during the early stages of the technology’s development, a uniquely suited match exists between the assets available with VR technology and applications in the psychological sciences. Virtual environments (VEs) have been developed that are now demonstrating effectiveness in a number of areas in clinical psychology and neuropsychology. These applications have shown promise for addressing: fear reduction with phobic clients (Rothbaum, Hodges & Kooper, 1997), stress management in cancer patients (Schneider & Workman, 1999), reduction of acute pain during wound care and physical therapy with burn patients (Hoffman, Doctor, Patterson, et.al., 2000), body image disturbances in patients with eating disorders (Riva, Bacchetta, Baruffi, et. al., 1999), navigation and spatial training in children with motor impairments (Stanton, Wilson, Foreman & Duffy, 2000), functional skills in persons with central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction (Brown & Stewart, 1996) and in the assessment (and in some cases, rehabilitation) of attention (Rizzo, Buckwalter, Bowerly, et.al., 2000), memory (Brooks et al., 1999), spatial skills (McComas, Pivik & Laflamme, 1998; Rizz