THE COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GROUP TRAINING OF SOCIAL SKILLS AND GROUP COGNITIVE-BEHAVIOR THERAPY IN REDUCING SOCIAL ANXIETY AMONG STUDENTS

Social anxiety disorder is one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in the students’ population. This disorder has some negative effects on scientific performance during education and on job performance in the future. In line with this, mental health specialists suggested different procedures to the treatment of social anxiety. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Group Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (GCBT) and Group Training of Social Skills on reducing social anxiety in the students of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz (Iran). This experimental research involved both pretest-posttest group design with control group. The population of this study included all BA students of Shahid Chamran University that 10 percent of these students were selected by cluster sampling. From this sample 45 students that achieved high scores in social anxiety scale were randomly assigned to experimental groups (15 subjects in GCBT and 15 subjects in group training of social skills) and control group (15 subjects). The gathered data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Sheffe following test. The findings showed that there was a significant difference between group CBT and group training of social skills. Moreover, significant difference existed between training of social skills and control group. But, there was not any difference between the Training of Social Skills and CBT. The group CBT and group training of social skills had efficacy on social anxiety in students. Since social anxiety intensifies and prone to other mental disorders and also due to its negative effect on academic performance of students in university's environment as well as future work environment, we can take some useful steps using these training to advance educational and occupational goals and also to establish effective relationships and more success.