Effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy (CBGT) on reduction of social phobia

Abstract

In this research effect of cognitive-behavioral group therapy of decreasing social anxiety between university students is surveyed. Statistical society in this project is composed of all students of Allame Tabatabaie Tehran University in educational year of 2007-2008. The group under consideration was composed of 16 girl students (8 in testing group and 8 in control group) which were chosen by sampling in accessible choice method. To measuring social anxiety SPIN social anxiety questionnaire was used. This is a semi - experimental research and research plan is two groups of pre-test- post-test type with control group. In this research intervention-therapy was implemented on testing group which was composed of student, while the control group didn’t receive such an intervention. Independent T Statistical test was utilized in this research. Findings show that average of differences in test group is much more than control group, which means there was more different between pre-test and post-test of each person, cognitive behavioral therapy therefore leads to decrease in scores in post-test and also increase of difference between pretest and posttest. But this different in control group is small. And T test shows that there is a meaningful difference between test and control group in P<0.035 level and we can conclude that cognitive-behavioral group was effective on test group. finally we can conclude that cognitive-behavioral group therapy is effective in improving social anxiety disorder symptoms and increasing social skills, just like other methods include supportive psychotherapy, psychological training and medical treatment.