Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Social phobia is categorised by the DSM-IV as the excessive distress in response to communication with people and social situations, reflected predominantly by fear of judgement (APA, 1994). It has been suggested that both genetics and environmental factors contribute to the disorder (Khrone & Hock, 1991), thus it has been a widely-explored basis in order to prevent vulnerable predispositions from being triggered by stressors. Two therapies which will be highlighted within this proposal is Cognitive Behavioural therapy (CBT) and exposure therapy.
CBT or Congitive Behavioural Group Therapy (CGBT) was first established by Beck (1967), assuming that it is not the negative events themselves that we experience which are the cause of abnormal thoughts-
Whilst previous studies have considered a combined therapy of virtual exposure and CBT (Butler, Cullington, Mundy, Amies, & Gelder, 1984), the conclusions drawn from this study will attempt to provide a singular therapy outlining the best methodology and materials in order to provide intervention for those who are diagnosed. In regards to previous research attempting to come to a similar conclusion, there has been sparsity in providing solid evidence for a singular approach. Moreover, what is perhaps a more underlying aim of this study- rather than just the aspect of treatment available- is to highlight the elevated predominance of social phobia. With prevalence ratings up to 16% in Western countries (Talepasand & Nokani, 2010), it is imperative that people are aware of the help available to them that is worthwhile. Due to subcategories of widespread symptoms- anxiety, for example - it is often neglected. Furthermore, literature such at this focusing on social phobia may prompt people to get support as factors such as age and gender contribute to people dismissing the need for support (Lipsitz & Schneier,
This would exclude those who have other disorders categorised on the DSM-IV; due to issues of comorbidity. We would use the shortened version of Mattick and Clarkes (1998) Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS) proposed by Fergus et al (2012), in order to approximate the diagnostic status of participants. Once those who are at the same levels of anxiety have been filtered, the participants would be split into three groups. These would be, a control group whereby no treatment would be administered, a CBT group and an exposure group. Both the SPS and SIAS consist of 20 items, but for the purpose of this study we are using the version with 6. Each item is rated on a likert scale of 1-5, with 0 regarding to the statement ‘not at all characteristic of me’, with 4 being ‘extremely characteristic for me’. The SPS specifically was designed to measure symptoms of anxiety in relation to conducting tasks whilst being observed by other people, whereas the SIAS explores anxiety regarding interacting within social situations which may be