The role of Meta cognition and personality traits in social phobia

Social phobia is the fourth common psychological disorder, which causes extreme suffering from rejection and criticism and / or other factors, thus withdrawal from the society due to avoiding this pain. The present study was performed with the aim of elucidation of the effect of personality traits and metacognition on social phobia. This research was conducted as a descriptive correlational study on 300 students (182 females and 118 males) of Tabriz University. The samples were selected from the students using stratified random sampling method. Data collection tools were the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PIR), short form of the Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ-30), and Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN). Data analysis was performed using simultaneous regression analysis test. In this study, personality traits, neuroticism positively and extraversion negatively (at the levels of p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively) and metacognition components negatively (at the level of p < 0.01), significantly predicted social phobia. The results of this study showed that therapists should pay more attention to the role of personality traits and metacognition in the etiology and treatment of social phobia.