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SWPS University - Main page

Chatbot as an automated support tool for psychotherapy, psychological help, and promotion of mental health
research
implementation
commercial
ongoing

Chatbotas an automated support tool for psychotherapy, psychological help, and promotion of mental health

principal investigator / project leader
Jarosław Michałowski
Ph.D. / Associate Professor

psychologist, researches neural correlates of emotional experiences

Full bio
project value: 71,125 EUR
funding source: Ministry of Education and Science
discipline: linguistics
research center: Institute of Psychology SWPS University
location: Poznań
duration: 2020 2021 2022

A chatbot that is currently being developed by a team of researchers from SWPS University, led by Professor Jarosław Michałowski, will provide basic psychological support to individuals in distress, at any time and place, via popular messaging apps. The tool will boost the therapeutic process and will provide psychological interventions outside of therapy sessions. The chatbot algorithms will enable texting with people, using the most effective techniques of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which help to identify and change negative thinking patterns, which cause mental distress.

The project is financed by Poland’s Minister of Science and Higher Education, as part of the “Regional Initiative of Excellence (RID)” for the years 2019-2022, project number 012/RID/2018/19 of December 18, 2018. Total amount of the RID funds granted to SWPS University is PLN 11,985,347 (close to EUR 2.6 million).

Assumptions

The goal of the project is to develop a chatbot that supports CBT therapeutic process and/or provides basic therapeutic help outside therapy sessions. The chatbot will identify and modify cognitive distortions using the Socratic method, an effective and universal technique rooted in cognitive-behavioral therapy. In this case, the innovative element lies in the automation of the method its implementation via a chatbot, accessible via popular messaging apps, which communicates with people through text messages that closely imitate natural human language. This approach seems very promising as far as the provision of an effective supplemental therapeutic support and basic psychological help are concerned.

We hope that the tool will enable access to basic professional psychological help, especially for people who face the biggest barriers in obtaining such help.

  • Michałowski, Jarosław Principal Investigator
    Bio
    Tak
    Specialization
    psychologist, researches neural correlates of emotional experiences
    Permanent employee
    Tak
    First and last name
    Jarosław Michałowski
    Academic degree or title
    Ph.D. / Associate Professor
    City
    poznan
    Discipline
    psychology
    Position
    profesor uczelni
    Role in the Faculty
    {"funkcja-na-wydziale0":{"Funkcja":"","\u0141\u0105cznik":"","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Faculty of Psychology and Law in Pozna\u0144"}}
    Role in the Department
    {"funkcja-w-katedrze0":{"Funkcja":"","\u0141\u0105cznik":"","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Department of Clinical and Health Psychology"}}
    Role in the Institute
    {"funkcja-w-instytucie0":{"Funkcja":"","\u0141\u0105cznik":"","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Institute of Psychology "}}
    Role in the Research Center
    {"funkcja-w-centrum0":{"Funkcja":"Head","\u0141\u0105cznik":"of the","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience"}}
    Faculty
    Array
    Institute
    Array
    Ph.D. / Associate Professor Jarosław Michałowskipsychologist, researches neural correlates of emotional experiences
  • Methodology

    The chatbot’s databases containing baseline linguistic models have been compiled by CBT psychotherapists, using a new and original methodology. The chatbot will utilize a combination of machine learning and rule-based algorithms.

    An important aspect of the project is verification of the chatbot's effectiveness, therefore pragmatic validation tests, user experience, and intervention effectiveness tests will be carried out. The final phase will include a study carried out in collaboration with Środowiskowe Centrum Zdrowia Psychicznego in Poznań, a center for mental health serving the local community of Poznań.

    Research team

  • Sanna, Katarzyna CBT therapist
    Bio
    Tak
    Permanent employee
    Tak
    Role in the Faculty
    {"funkcja-na-wydziale0":{"Funkcja":"Dean's Representative for Practicum (Psychology Program)","\u0141\u0105cznik":"at the","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Faculty of Psychology and Law in Pozna\u0144"}}
    Role in the Department
    {"funkcja-w-katedrze0":{"Funkcja":"","\u0141\u0105cznik":"","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Department of Clinical and Health Psychology"}}
    Role in the Research Center
    {"funkcja-w-centrum0":{"Funkcja":"","\u0141\u0105cznik":"","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Center for Research on Personality Development"},"funkcja-w-centrum1":{"Funkcja":"","\u0141\u0105cznik":"","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience"}}
    Specialization
    psychologist, psychotherapist, cancer psychologist
    First and last name
    Katarzyna Sanna
    Academic degree or title
    Ph.D. / Assistant Professor
    City
    poznan
    Discipline
    psychology
    Position
    adiunkt
    Faculty
    Array
    Institute
    Array
    Role in the Institute
    []
    Ph.D. / Assistant Professor Katarzyna Sannapsychologist, psychotherapist, cancer psychologist
  • Szczepaniak, Norbert research and development project manager
    Bio
    Tak
    Specialization
    research and development manager
    Permanent employee
    Tak
    First and last name
    Norbert Szczepaniak
    Academic degree or title
    M.Eng.
    Institute
    Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience
    M.Eng. Norbert Szczepaniak 
  • Karkosz, Stanisław specializes in the design and implementation of research projects and data analysis involving machine learning techniques
    Bio
    Nie
    Permanent employee
    Tak
    Specialization
    cognitive scientist
    First and last name
    Stanisław Karkosz
    Academic degree or title
    M.A. / Teaching Assistant
    Role in the Institute
    {"funkcja-w-instytucie0":{"Funkcja":"","\u0141\u0105cznik":"","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Institute of Psychology"}}
    Role in the Research Center
    {"funkcja-w-centrum0":{"Funkcja":"","\u0141\u0105cznik":"","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience"}}
    City
    poznan
    Discipline
    psychology
    Position
    asystent
    Role in the Faculty
    {"funkcja-na-wydziale0":{"Funkcja":"","\u0141\u0105cznik":"","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Faculty of Psychology and Law in Pozna\u0144"}}
    Role in the Department
    {"funkcja-w-katedrze0":{"Funkcja":"","\u0141\u0105cznik":"","Nazwa w mianowniku":"Department of Methodology and Psychological Assessment"}}
    Faculty
    Array
    Institute
    Array
    M.A. / Teaching Assistant Stanisław Karkoszcognitive scientist
  • Konat, Barbara specializes in NLP and computational modelling of discursive text properties
    Bio
    Nie
    Permanent employee
    Nie
    First and last name
    Barbara Konat
    Academic degree or title
    Ph.D.
    Ph.D. Barbara Konat 
  • Gawrycka, Iwona specializes in innovation development, research commercialization and research ethics
    Bio
    Nie
    Permanent employee
    Nie
    First and last name
    Iwona Gawrycka
    Ph.D. Iwona Gawrycka 
  • Practical application of results

    The expected results of the project include expanding access to professional basic psychological support by reducing financial, social, and institutional barriers. Besides its social dimension, the project will provide a foundation for developing products offering extended functionality, addressed to individual and organizational users, such as therapeutic clinics that could use the chatbot as a tool supporting effectiveness of therapy, through systematization of patients’ own work and monitoring results of therapy.

    Moreover, advancements made in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and artificial intelligence in the area of robot-human interaction via text messaging, may provide strong foundation for further development of chatbots communicating with people in Polish and related languages.