Our view of the world forms based on our experiences. Certain experiences can have a strong powerful effect that could transform an individual’s worldview. These experiences are often described as transformative, or pivotal. Such experience can occur when an individual witnesses a powerful natural phenomenon, such as a vast ocean or mountain views, underwater world, or the view of the Earth from space.
After admiring the beauty of the world, individuals sometimes experience a shift in their consciousness, and adjust their worldview based on the newly received perspective. Such experiences are profoundly positive, but unfortunately very rare and private, and thus difficult to study or reproduce. Transformative design framework proposes a method of studying transformative experience through the use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology.
The immersive powers of virtual reality can "teleport" the immersant from the lab into a different world, thus providing the researchers with a unique real-time access to these inherently private emotional experiences in a controlled lab condition. In order to understand such complex phenomena we are proposing to describe it as a progression through different stages or levels of the experience, and assess each stage and transition individually. Our framework outlines the progression of the transformative experience in 3 stages: perceptual dissonance, cognitive shift, and behavioral change.
Stepanova, E. R., Quesnel, D., Kitson, A., Prpa, M., Aguilar, I. & Riecke, B. E. A framework for studying Transformative Experiences through Virtual Reality in 23rd Annual CyberPsychology, CyberTherapy & Social Networking Conference (symposium talk) (Gatineau, QC, Canada, June 2018).
Stepanova, E. R., Quesnel, D. & Riecke, B. E. Transformative Experiences become more accessible through Virtual Reality in IEEE VR Workshop on Virtual and Augmented Reality for Good (VAR4GOOD) (2018).
Stepanova, E. R., Quesnel, D., Kitson, A., Prpa, M. & Riecke, B. E. Virtual Reality as a Tool for Inducing and Understanding Transformative Experiences in Psychonomics Society 58th Annual Meeting (poster) (Vancouver, Canada, Nov. 2017).
Kitson, A., Buie, E., Stepanova, E. R., Riecke, B. E., Gaggioli, A. & Chirico, A. Transformative Experience Design: Using Interactive Technologies and Narrative to Support Transformative Experiences in ACM CHI 2019 Special Interest Group (2019), 1−4.