The DOI matches its Crossref record; 50 of the 52 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Relational Agents in Clinical Psychiatry
Abstract
Relational agents are computational artifacts, such as animated, screen-based characters or social robots, that are designed to establish a sense of rapport, trust, and even therapeutic alliance with patients, using ideal therapeutic relationships between human counselors and patients as role models. We describe the development and evaluation of several such agents designed for health counseling and behavioral-change interventions, in which a therapeutic alliance is established with patients in order to enhance the efficacy of the intervention. We also discuss the promise of using such agents as adjuncts to clinical psychiatry, a range of possible applications, and some of the challenges and ethical issues in developing and fielding them in psychiatric interventions.
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“Third, relational agents (RAs), which can mimic human healthcare professionals' behavior, could be built based on affective computing.”
From Digital Therapeutic Alliance With Fully Automated Mental Health Smartphone Apps: A Narrative Review (2022) · cites this paper as [66]
In the citing paper
“Bickmore and Gruber (66) further argued that RAs can build long-term relationships with clients when using certain design strategies, such as variability and self-disclosure.”
From Digital Therapeutic Alliance With Fully Automated Mental Health Smartphone Apps: A Narrative Review (2022) · cites this paper as Bickmore and Gruber (66)
In the citing paper
“Recent existing reviews have focused exclusively on a subset of embodied conversational agent interventions despite other modalities aiming to achieve the common goal of improved mental health.”
From Conversational agents in the treatment of mental health problems: mixed-method systematic review (2019) · cites this paper as [7]
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Chatbots and Conversational Agents in Mental Health: A Review of the Psychiatric Landscape
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Metadata
- Authors
- Bickmore, T., & Gruber, A.
- Affiliations
- Northeastern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bickmore, Timothy
- ORCID
- Bickmore, Timothy
- Venue
- Harvard Review of Psychiatry
- Published
- 2010-03
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 119-130
- ISSN
- 1067-3229 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2149556084
- Cited by
- 112
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 5.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Harvard Review of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- relational agents, social robots, therapeutic relationship, health counseling, behaviour change interventions, clinical psychiatry, rapport building, trust, ethical considerations
- MeSH terms
- Counseling, Humans, Psychiatry, Internet
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