Abstract
A Qualitative Study of the Auditory, Tactile, and the Visual Components of Social Anxiety “Psychoeducational” Mobile Apps
Trent Ernest Hammond, Sydney Medical School Foundation Fellow, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney
Published research about the design, conceptualisation, and the evaluation of effective social anxiety mobile apps is almost non-existent. Identifying novel and effective ways to prevent and to overcome social anxiety is crucial to reduce the severity and the duration of the condition. Most treatment for social anxiety inadvertently reduces treatment compliance and reduces the likelihood that patients will seek other forms of treatment, specifically, counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy, and exposure therapy. These therapies require the socially anxious to engage closely with therapists and to build rapport with mental health professionals, who are often “strangers.” Innovative “psychoeducational” mobile apps have the potential to increase patient access to online treatments, which could ultimately increase compliance with treatment and enhance treatment outcomes. Between 13–25 August 2019, the author systematically reviewed and evaluated the existing commercial mobile apps for social anxiety in the Australian Apple and Google Play app stores. The key auditory, tactile, and the visual components of the top-five-rated psychoeducational apps were then compared and described following a qualitative observational and descriptive approach. The methodology, the findings, and the conclusions for this research will be outlined in turn.