COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING IN THE TREATMENT OF SOCIAL PHOBIA - EFFICACY AND MODE OF ACTION

Cognitive restructuring (CR) is commonly used to treat social phobia, although its contribution to treatment efficacy has not been establish ed. CR requires the person to think about and discuss feared social ev ents with his or her therapist and thus entails some degree of exposur e to social stimuli. CR also is thought to enhance the efficacy of the rapeutic exposure exercises (EXP). Four predictions were tested based on this model: Relative to a control intervention matched for the expo sure inherent in CR, CR is more effective in (1) reducing social phobi a, (2) reducing negative social cognitions, (3) increasing positive co gnitions, and (4) enhancing the effects of subsequent EXP. People with generalized social phobia (N=60) were randomly assigned to CR followe d by EXP or to a control intervention followed by EXP. Support was fou nd for predictions 1 to 3, but not 4.