Memo14-Narrative

I am going to initiate a research study which is new in its own kind and has no relative background, using anthropomorphic robots in favor of psychiatric treatments for individuals with schizophrenia. When people starts talking about robots, tow kinds of robots come to their mind, ones looks like combatant robots in science fiction books and movies such as star wars that can defeat enemies with their amazing power and the other one is soulless and silent machines which are just designed for automation and working in hazardous job positions in factories such as automobile industries. There have been huge tendencies in recent decades in developed countries such as Japan to create robots as similar to human as possible. The tendency of building human like robots, called anthropomorphism of robots, has intensified during last year’s such as the endeavors of Honda company in building ASIMO PINO. Whereas most Japanese companies tend to creating personified robots, most American robotic engineers believe that human like robots will limit the functions of a robot as they believe that anthropomorphism does not mean designing a robot looks like a human, whereas anthropomorphism means accelerating human activities and social interactions via humanoid robots. The reason behind these ideas is that they just limit the functions of robots to physical aspects of human lives not to the psychological dimensions. So making robots with physical attributes such as size, voice and weight can make a harmonious co –existence between robots and people especially in this project with schizophrenic people who are suffering from social isolation and lack of social support. Recovering and treating a schizophrenic people are feasible by medical treaties and psychiatry measures. Social functioning will be affected heavily by this disorder and problems with social functioning have been a noted characteristic of schizophrenia (Bellack, 1986) so psychologists believe that “improving the social behaviors of persons with schizophrenia has been a key target of psychiatric rehabilitation techniques “(Roth et al, 2004) which will help individuals with schizophrenia to develop and use his or her talents and so acquire confidence and self esteem through success in a social role. ( Rossler, 2006) The current general approach to rehabilitation of people with schizophrenic is bio-psychosocial intervention which includes biological, psychological and social interventions. The significance of family members and relatives for the after-care of schizophrenic people is recognized. Family is now commonly viewed as a source of support and care for the person with schizophrenia (Kreisman and Joy, 1974; Vaughn and Leff, 1981) Attention has been paid to ways to enhancing this family role and their ability to care (Hawks, 1975; Crotty and Lulys, 1986) This research will show that in the absence of family support and its consequent emotional support which undoubtedly has a pivotal role in the rehabilitation of schizophrenic people, advanced technology can be in service and aid of human beings to recover and treat their psychological disorders as the recent researches on treating children with autism with the aid of robots prove this reality.