Community Health Journal

Community Health Journal

The Effectiveness of Emotional Schema Therapy Group Training on Metacognitive Beliefs in Students with Social Phobia Symptoms at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
S Abdollahian 1
A Rezaei 2
A Jalili Shishwan 3
N Moheb 4
1 Ph.D student of Educational Psychology, Dept of Psychology, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran.
2 Associate Prof, Dept of Psychology, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
3 Assistant Prof, Dept of Psychology, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran .
4 Assistant Prof, Dept of Psychology, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran.
10.22123/chj.2020.228634.1493
Abstract
Introduction: Metacognitive beliefs are associated with different forms of psychopathology in social anxiety disorder, necessitating the need to provide psychological interventions to people with social anxiety symptoms. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of group training of emotional schema therapy on the metacognitive beliefs in students with social phobia symptoms in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.
Materials and Methods: The statistical population of this quasi-experimental research included all students with a social phobia at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in the academic year of 2019-2020. Among them, 30 students diagnosed with a social phobia disorder with a cut-off score of 40 according to the Social Phobia Inventory of Connor et al. (2000)  and the DSM-5 criteria were selected by multistage cluster and purposive sampling methods; then, they were randomly assigned to one experimental and one control group (15 people per group). All in two groups completed the Wells & Cartwright-Hatton (2000) Metacognition Questionnaire. The experimental group completed eight sessions of emotional schema therapy, while the control group received no intervention; then, the questionnaire was again completed by both groups. The results were analyzed using multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance.
Results: The mean and standard deviation of metacognitive beliefs score in the pre-test stage were not significantly different between the experimental group (67.20± 6.17) and the control group (67.06±6 6.07); however, the mean and standard deviation of this score in the post-test between the experimental group (45.60±4.35) and the control group (67.40±6 6.86) showed a significant difference (p=0.001).
Conclusion: Since the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy in reducing metacognitive beliefs in people with social anxiety symptoms is proved, it is recommended to be used in order to improve the metacognitive beliefs of students with a social phobia at the University of Medical Sciences.
Keywords
Education
Emotional schema therapy
Metacognitive beliefs
Social phobia
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