ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Original Research

Authors

Ghadampour   E (1)
Hosseini Ramaghani   N (*)
Moradi   S (2)
Moradiyani Gizeh Rod   Kh (1)
Alipour   K (1)






(*) Psychology Department, Literature & Humanities Faculty, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
(1) Psychology Department, Literature & Humanities Faculty, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
(2) Educational Sciences Department, Literature & Humanities Faculty, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Psychology Department, Literature & Humanities Faculty, University of Lorestan, Khorramabad, Iran
Phone: +98 (910) 7005927
Fax: +98 (66) 33120097
nasrin.ramaghani@gmail.com

Article History

Received:  July  12, 2017
Accepted:  May 2, 2018
ePublished:  May 16, 2018

BRIEF TEXT


Social anxiety disorder is one of the anxiety disorders including persistent fear of social situations and, consequently, avoidance of these situations, especially when the person is doing his activities or while presenting among unfamiliar individuals [1].

... [2-6]. Post-traumatic processing is one of the cognitive processes, which its role has been shown in the resistance of social anxiety disorder [7, 8, 9]. Rumination can be seen in social anxiety disorder, perpetual processing, or thinking about social interactions and a sense of inadequacy in past social conditions [10]. ... [11, 13]. Cognitive avoidance is a variety of mental strategies that change people's thinking in social communication [14]. In recent years, Leahy has presented meta-cognitive model based on emotional processing and emotional schema therapy model. The model is based on the principle that emotional disorders are resulted from beliefs, interpretations, and strategies used to deal with excitements; these beliefs, interpretations and strategies about emotional experience are emotional schemas [21]. ..... [22-30].

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of Emotional Schema Therapy (EST) on post-event rumination and cognitive avoidance in people with social anxiety.

This research is an applied research with semi-experimental pretest-posttest design using control group.

The present study was conducted on adolescents with social anxiety disorder who were studying in the second year of high school in Delfan city in 2016-2017.

In the present study, multi-stage cluster sampling was performed. 32 students with clinical symptoms of social anxiety, who had the inclusion criteria, were selected.

At first, three high schools for girls were selected randomly from the second year of high school students in Delfan and the researcher referred to the schools and informed the officials about the research and characteristics of sample students. Following necessary coordinating with the authorities, three classes were randomly selected from each school. At the next stage, students of each selected class were invited to participate in a psychological research and the students were free to attend. The subjects selected from each class of three schools who were willing to participate in the research completed Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) by Connor and according to the cut-off score of 29 [31], those who scored above this cutting point were screened. Clinical interviews were performed for selected subjects based on DSM-5 criteria by a Ph.D. student of psychology. Finally, at least 30 subjects were considered in two experimental and control groups, due to the experimental research design and the sample size in the experimental studies [32]. It should be noted that the samples obtained the considered score based on the cut point score and their social anxiety disorder was diagnosed based on clinical interview. Other inclusion criteria included having a minimum age of 15 years, attending group intervention sessions, no simultaneously attendance at other educational and therapeutic classes, being prepared physically and mentally to answer questions. Exclusion criteria included psychotic symptoms, obsessive-compulsive thoughts, suffering from another psychotic disorder (axis I) (except for mild depression), some signs of personality disorder and being absent in more than one session of the training sessions. Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) by Connor, Post Event Processing Questionnaire (PEPQ), and Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (CAQ) were used to collect data in the pre-test and post-test. ..... [33-36]. After the diagnostic and sampling phases, an introduction session was conducted for students who had the inclusion criteria, during which the written informed consent to attend intervention sessions was received from the subjects. In addition, the participants were informed about the following issues in this meeting: secrecy should be respected, the psychological health of the participants should be prioritized, those who are not willing to participate in the intervention process should be respected, and the subject facing difficulty or those who need medication can withdraw the research and refer to psychiatrist. Then, all subjects in the sample group (32 students) were randomly assigned into the experimental (n=16) and control (n=16) groups and pre-test was performed. In the next stage, the experimental group participated in the main intervention process, which was conducted by a PhD student in psychology in 10 90-min sessions guided with one of the professors of psychology. After the intervention sessions, both experimental and control groups were evaluated in the post-test phase. It should be noted that at the post-test stage, one of the control group members was absent, and therefore the control group had 15 subjects. Meanwhile, after post-test, emotional schema therapy was performed for the control group in three sessions. At first, the emotional schema therapy guideline for social anxiety disorder was designed by modifying and harmonizing the generalized anxiety disorder protocol [28], according to the social anxiety disorder conceptualization and it was then examined by two experts in psychology. Finally, the final guideline was prepared following their corrections. Data was analyzed using SPSS 23 software and the multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).

The age range of the participants in the study was 15-17 years. The mean age of the experimental and the control groups were 16.22±1.26 and 16.55±1.12 years. In the post-test, the total mean scores of post-traumatic rumination and cognitive avoidance decreased in the experimental group and after controlling the effect of pre-test scores between two groups, there was a significant difference between two groups in the total mean scores of post-event rumination and cognitive avoidance (p<0.001). In this regard, the effect of training emotional schema therapy on post-event rumination and cognitive avoidance was 47% and 65%, respectively (Table 2).

Consistent with the results of this study, Rezaei et al. [27] study results showed the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy to decrease the levels of depression and rumination in patients with major depression. In addition, in line with the present study, the results of Khaleghi et al. [28] study showed that emotional schema therapy reduces the anxiety and anxiety symptoms in patients with generalized anxiety disorder. Emotional schema therapy is emphasized on acceptance and mindfulness, so the results of this study can be in line with the results of studies by Heeren & Philippot [37], Shikatani et al. [38] and Deyo et al. [39], indicating the effectiveness of acceptance and mindfulness therapies in reducing rumination and cognitive avoidance.

Emotional schema therapy with follow-up and on other components of social anxiety as well as in other age groups is recommended.

Studying only female students was one of the limitations of this study, so the results should be cautiously generalized.

Emotional Scheme Therapy is effective in reducing post-event rumination and cognitive avoidance in students with clinical symptoms of social anxiety.

The authors are grateful to the officials of the Education and schools of the Nurabad city as well as students of the experimental group.

None declared.

None declared.

The present research is supported by the Elites Foundation of Lorestan province.

TABLES and CHARTS

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CITIATION LINKS

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