A Proposal for a Web Application for Psychological Education Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Abstract

In psychological education using cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for the prevention of mental disorders, positive opinions have been raised about group work in learning, and it has been suggested that it may be effective in motivating users in CBT services using the Internet. In this study, we developed a psychoeducational web application that simulates group work and teaches basic knowledge and skills of CBT. The user writes an answer such as his/her thoughts on the event to a worksheet on the screen. After the screen transition, the situation of group work of listening to the opinions of others is reproduced by displaying the answers of other respondents to the same task. The usefulness of the web application is verified by evaluating whether the learners were able to use the knowledge and skills in their daily lives, in addition to their understanding and retention of the knowledge and skills, and the subjects’ depression scale. As a result, a certain effect was observed in the understanding and retention of knowledge and skills related to CBT, and the usefulness of the psycho-educational web application that simulates group work in terms of learning was clarified.