The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy on Self-Critical and Psychological Capital of Students with Social Anxiety Syndrome

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of group counseling with a cognitive-behavioral approach on self-criticism and psychological capital of students with social anxiety syndrome. The research design was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population was made up of girls studying in the second secondary level in Qom province who had social anxiety. Among them, 30 people were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. To collect data, the social anxiety scales, the self-criticism scale and the psychological capital scale were used. In this study, cognitive-behavioral group counseling based on the protocol of Hoffman and Otto was conducted on the experimental group for12 sessions of 2.5 hours. After the end of the intervention, a post-test and after 45days, a follow-up test were conducted on both groups. To analyze the data, repeated measurement variance analysis method were used. The results showed that the effect of cognitive-behavioral group counseling on self-criticism and psychological capital and social anxiety on the experimental group was significant. Therefore, it is suggested that use of this method in schools and educational system should be considered.