Effect of Meta-Cognitive Therapy on Self Assertiveness Skill in Patients with Social Phobia Disorder

Background: Self assertiveness can be considered as hearth of interpersonal behavior and weakness in this area is one of the obvious characteristic in the patients with social phobia disorder. This study aimed to determine the effect of meta-cognitive therapy on the rate of self assertiveness skill in patients with social phobia disorder. Materials and Methods: This experimental study was conducted with pretest-posttest and follow-up design, using control group. From all social phobia disorder patients visited in psychology clinics in Shiraz, south western part of Iran in 2012, 22 patients were selected through the objective sampling method and randomly divided into two experimental (11 persons) and control (11 persons) groups. The instruments of this study were social phobia symptoms assessment questioner (SPSAQ) and self assertiveness scale (SAS). The experimental group received 8 weeks of Wells’ meta-cognitive therapy sessions. Data were analyzed through covariance analysis method. Results: The results showed that the mean of the self assertiveness scores in post-test and follow up in the experimental group is significantly higher than that of the control group (p < 0.05). The results of analysis of multivariate covariance showed that MCT had a significant effect on increscent of the self assertiveness skill scores of posttest (0.39) and follow up (0.38) in patients with social phobia disorder (p < 0.001). Conclusion: This intervention is believed to improve self assertiveness skill in SPD patients by facilitating transmission from the object mode to the meta-cognitive mode and enhancing the efficient and flexible coping skills.