IMPORTANCE Globally, access to evidence-based psychological treatment is limited. Innovative self-help methods using smartphone applications and low-cost virtual reality have the potential to significantly improve the accessibility and scalability of psychological treatments. OBJECTIVE To examine the effectiveness of ZeroPhobia, a fully self-guided app-based virtual reality cognitive behavior therapy (VR CBT) using low-cost (cardboard) virtual reality goggles compared with a wait-list control group and to determine its user friendliness. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In a single-blind randomized clinical trial, participants were enrolled between March 24 and September 28, 2017, and randomly assigned (1:1) by an independent researcher to either VR CBT app or a wait-list control group. A total of 193 individuals aged 18 to 65 years from the Dutch general population with acrophobia symptoms and access to an Android smartphone participated. The 6 animated modules of the VR-CBT app and gamified virtual reality environments were delivered over a 3-week period in participants' natural environment. Assessments were completed at baseline, immediately after treatment, and at 3-month follow-up. Analysis began April 6, 2018, and was intention to treat. INTERVENTION Self-guided app-based VR CBT. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome measure was the Acrophobia Questionnaire. The hypothesis was formulated prior to data collection. RESULTS In total, 193 participants (129 women [66.84%]; mean [SD] age, 41.33 [13.64] years) were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 96) or a wait-list control group (n = 97). An intent-to-treat analysis showed a significant reduction of acrophobia symptoms at posttest at 3 months for the VR-CBT app compared with the controls (b =-26.73 [95% CI, −32.12 to −21.34]; P < .001; d = 1.14 [95% CI, 0.84 to 1.44]). The number needed to treat was 1.7. Sensitivity and robustness analysis confirmed these findings. Pretreatment attrition was 22 of 96 (23%) because of smartphone incompatibility. Of the 74 participants who started using the VR-CBT app, 57 (77%) completed the intervention fully. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE A low-cost fully self-guided app-based virtual reality cognitive behavioral therapy with rudimentary virtual reality goggles can produce large acrophobia symptom reductions. To our knowledge, this study is the first to show that virtual reality acrophobia treatment can be done at home without the intervention of a therapist.

We propose and test a model of criminal decision making that integrates the individual differences perspective with research and theorizing on proximal factors. The individual differences perspective is operationalized using the recent HEXACO personality structure. This structure incorporates the main personality traits, but it carries the advantage of also incorporating Self‐Control within its personality sphere, and an additional trait termed Honesty‐Humility. Furthermore, the model offers a new perspective on proximal predictors, “states,” of criminal decisions by adding affect (i.e., feelings) to the rational choice–crime equation. The proposed model is tested using scenario data from a representative sample of the Dutch population in terms of gender, age, education level, and province (N = 495). As predicted by the model, personality was both directly and indirectly related to criminal decision making. Specifically, the traits Emotionality, Self‐Control, and Honesty‐Humility were mediated by both affect and rational choice variables. Conscientiousness operated only indirectly on criminal decision making via rational choice. Together, the findings support a trait‐state model of criminal decision making.

The tendency to live in the here and now, and the failure to think through the delayed consequences of behavior, is one of the strongest individual-level correlates of delinquency. We tested the hypothesis that this correlation results from a limited ability to imagine one's self in the future, which leads to opting for immediate gratification. Strengthening the vividness of the future self should therefore reduce involvement in delinquency. We tested and found support for this hypothesis in two studies. In Study 1, compared with participants in a control condition, those who wrote a letter to their future self were less inclined to make delinquent choices. In Study 2, participants who interacted with a realistic digital version of their future, age-progressed self in a virtual environment were less likely than control participants to cheat on a subsequent task.

No abstract

This article critically reviews several claims underlying different positions in the debate on tenure legalization and empirically investigates them in a low-income settlement in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Even though both tenure legality, in the form of property titles, and perceived tenure security have separately been shown to influence housing improvement, most research has taken a relatively rudimentary approach to their measurement, and little work has been done to examine their interrelations. These issues are taken up in the present article in which the legal-illegal tenure dichotomy embedded in standard perspectives on legalization is broadened to include intermediate levels of legality and subsequently linked to a social psychological perspective on perceived tenure security. The question of to what extent property titles facilitate access to credit is also examined. The results show that tenure legality and perceived tenure security are in fact closely related in the settlement under study, as higher levels of legality also imply higher perceived tenure security. Furthermore, both tenure legality and perceived tenure security are significant predictors of housing improvement and, consequently, settlement development. There was, however, no relation between tenure legality and access to credit. Copyright (c) 2009 The Author. Journal Compilation(c) 2009 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.