The effectiveness of transactional analysis psychotherapy on negative automatic thoughts and optimism of female adolescents with social anxiety disorder

In this study, transactional analysis psychotherapy was used to evaluate the effect of negative automatic thoughts and optimism on female adolescents with social anxiety disorder. It included female adolescents in district 6 of Isfahan in 2019-2020 who were referred to psychological clinics to treat social anxiety disorder and were chosen by purposive sampling. It was a quasi-experimental study with pre-post tests and a control group, where 24 female adolescents with social anxiety disorder were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (12 in each group). Data collection instruments included Life Orientation Scale (LOT-R) and Negative Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (NATQ). The experimental group received an educational program during eight 90-minute weekly sessions; the control group did not receive any interventions. In both groups, questionnaires were administered before and after the intervention sessions. In addition, the data were analyzed using SPSS software, Version 19, using covariance analysis. The results showed that the experimental and control groups differed significantly regarding optimism during pretest control (F=23.573; p < .0001). Transactional analysis psychotherapy increased optimism among the experimental group because the mean optimism levels were higher than those of the control group. The results of the study suggest that transactional analysis psychotherapy is an effective method for treating social anxiety.