Self–Related and Interpersonal Judgment Biases in Social Anxiety Disorder: Changes During Treatment and Relationship to Outcome

Abstract

It is now well established that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is efficacious in the treatment of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Although previous research supports the cognitive proposition that clinical improvement in CBT is achieved in part through the modification of distorted judgment processes, little is known about the specific nature of the judgment biases that are important in the treatment of pathological social fear. To address this issue, the extent to which early changes in self– and interpersonal–judgment biases are associated with later changes in symptoms during treatment in a sample of patients diagnosed with generalized SAD were assessed. Pre-, mid-, and posttreatment measures of social anxiety symptoms and judgment biases were collected from patients completing a 12–week group interpersonal–CBT program for SAD (n = 19) and from patients assigned to a waitlist control condition (n = 23). Results revealed that reductions in patients' judgments about the likelihood that others would re...