ASSESSMENT OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL PHOBIA VERBAL REPORT INSTRUMENTS

The Social Phobia Scale (SPS), the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (S IAS) and the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) were compared to each other and evaluated in patients with social phobia. We examine d the relationship of these three contemporary social phobia verbal re port instruments with each other, as well as with behavioral and self- report cognitive criteria. As expected, the three social phobia scales were significantly intercorrelated, although they differed in their r elationship to the behavioral and cognitive measures. Specifically, th e SPS had a significant negative relationship with time spent in a spe ech behavioral assessment test. The higher the anxiety scores were on the SPS, the less time patients spent giving an impromptu speech in fr ont of a small audience. The SIAS was consistently related to negative and positive self-reported thoughts in speech and conversation behavi oral assessment tests. All instruments differentiated patients with sp eech phobia from those having both generalized social phobia and avoid ant personality disorder, only the SPAT and the SIAS, however, disting uished the former group from individuals with generalized social phobi a but no without avoidant personality disorder. All three social phobi a instruments were sensitive to treatment changes. Results are discuss ed in terms of the relative utility of each of these measures' total s cores and ally and their subscales. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.