Enhancing Psychological Resilience with Chatbot-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy: A Randomized Control Pilot Study
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Depression is a common, serious, and potentially lethal mental disorder. Using a chatbot to assist people with learning skills to build psychological resilience against adverse life events is a promising research direction, which however, has received little attention in literature. The purpose of this study is to verify the effectiveness and usability of chatbot-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). One-hundred and seven participants were recruited on social media and randomly divided into a chatbot group (n=52) and a control group (n=55). A self-developing chatbot, Philobot, guided all participants in the chatbot group through CBT in a four-day session, while the participants in the control group were asked to read CBT-based books. The results showed that chatbot-based CBT could significantly improve mental resilience (t=2.43, p<0.05). However, the difference between the chatbot and control group did not reach statistical significance.
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A study found that a mental health chatbot alone did not outperform the traditional bibliotherapy method in developing participants' resilience.
“a study also found that mental health chatbot alone did not outperform the traditional bibliotherapy method in developing [58] participants’ resilience.”
From Generative AI Mental Health Chatbots as Therapeutic Tools: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Their Role in Reducing Mental Health Issues (2025) · cites this paper as [58]
One study integrated NLP, BERT, and deep learning.
“another integrated NLP, BERT, deep learning [58]”
From Generative AI Mental Health Chatbots as Therapeutic Tools: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Their Role in Reducing Mental Health Issues (2025) · cites this paper as [58]
One study drew from positive psychology.
“one drew from positive psychology [58]”
From Generative AI Mental Health Chatbots as Therapeutic Tools: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Their Role in Reducing Mental Health Issues (2025) · cites this paper as [58]
Section 2.2 describes Philobot’s intervention as CBT, with dialogue written from CBT literature. The Introduction and Measures discuss resilience, well-being, and positive affect, but do not say the study drew from positive psychology. A search for “positive psychology” found no passage establishing that basis; CBT and positive psychology are not necessarily mutually exclusive. (LLM, conf=0.74)
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Hua, Y., Siddals, S., Ma, Z., Galatzer‐Levy, I., Xia, W., Hau, C., Na, H., Flathers, M., Linardon, J., Ayubcha, C., et al. (2025) · World Psychiatry · doi:10.1002/wps.21352 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Zhang, Q., Zhang, R., Xiong, Y., Sui, Y., Tong, C., & Lin, F.-H. (2025) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/78238 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
“5 [24], another integrated NLP, BERT, deep learning [58], and one used natural language generation (NLG) [57].”
Influential
- Authors
- Liu, I., Chen, W., Ge, Q., Song, D., & Ni, S.
- Affiliations
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- Beijing Institute of Technology (CN)
- Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School (CN)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium of Chinese CHI
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2022-10-22
- Pages
- 216-221
- OpenAlex
- W4391763983
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2
- FWCI
- 0.96
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Symposium of Chinese CHI (Chinese CHI) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- National Social Science Fund of China (BBA210042)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- psychological resilience, depression, digital mental health interventions, chatbot usability, life events
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