Assessment of contemporary social phobia verbal report instruments

Abstract

The Social Phobia Scale (SPS), the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) were compared to each other and evaluated in patients with social phobia. We examined the relationship of these three contemporary social phobia verbal report instruments with each other, as well as with behavioral and self-report cognitive criteria. As expected, the three social phobia scales were significantly intercorrelated, although they differed in their relationship to the behavioral and cognitive measures. Specifically, the SPS had a significant negative relationship with time spent in a speech behavioral assessment test. The higher the anxiety scores were on the SPS, the less time patients spent giving an impromptu speech in front of a small audience. The SIAS was consistently related to negative and positive self-reported thoughts in speech and conversation behavioral assessment tests. All instruments differentiated patients with speech phobia from those having both generalized social phobia and avoidant personality disorder; only the SPAI and the SIAS, however, distinguished the former group from individuals with generalized social phobia but no without avoidant personality disorder. All three social phobia instruments were sensitive to treatment changes. Results are discussed in terms of the relative utility of each of these measures' total scores and any and their subscales.