Comparing the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Reduction of Social Anxiety Disorder Symptoms in University Students

Abstract

Background: Social anxiety disorder is one of the most common chronic anxiety disorders with a significant fear or anxiety that leads to a long period of disability and the sufferer suffers a lot of problems in terms of personal, occupational and social performanceObjectives: The purpose of present study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral group therapy and acceptance and commitment group therapy on reducing of social anxiety symptoms in university students with social anxiety disorder.Methods: In this research, a semi-experimental interventional method was used using two groups of experimental and one control group. A sample of 45 students with social anxiety disorder was selected by convenience sampling method and then randomly assigned to two experimental and one control groups. The Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) was used for data collection in order to assess the amount of social anxiety. The pre-test and post-test scores were analyzed using covariance test.Results: The results showed that, both treatment groups outperformed control group, with no differences observed between CBT group and ACT group. Although ACT group slightly outperformed CBT group but the difference was not statistically significance.Conclusion: Findings shows that the two therapeutic approaches are equally effective in reducing the symptoms of social anxiety, and ACT can be a good alternative CBT in the treatment of social anxiety disorder.