Research Information System
33rd International Congress of Psychology, Praha, Czech Republic, 21 - 26 July 2024, vol.59, no.1, pp.54-55
Fears and anxieties of people with social anxiety problems cause communication problems as well as severe impairment in their functionality. The literature showed that individuals with social anxiety had impaired social cognition skills (emotion recognition/discrimination, theory of mind, social functioning, and attribution bias). Technological developments have also affected mental health practices, providing many advantages in accessing treatment (e.g., accessibility, cost efficient, decreased fear of stigmatization). This situation has increased internet based psychotherapy and applications in the mental health field. In this study, the effectiveness of an internet-based social cognition trainingi ntervention program (1) to reduce individuals’ symptoms with social anxiety symptoms and (2) improve their social cognition skills was examined. The study sample consisted of 86 people between the ages of 18 and 65 who have social anxiety symptoms, deficiency/impairment in social cognitive skills, and basic internet skills. Analyzes were conducted who completed their post-tests among the participants who were randomly assigned to the Internet-based social cognition training(IBSCT) intervention program and the waiting list control group (WLC). The LiebowitzSocial Anxiety Scale, the Facial EmotionIdentification and Facial Emotion Discrimination Tests, Reading the Mind in the EyesTest, the Internal, Personal and SituationalAttributes Scale, the Social Functioning Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory were conducted. In the analysis section, pre-test and post-test measurement data were examined by controlling the depression variable and using two-way covariance analysis for mixed designs. According to analysis, IBSCT showed significantly lower scores in the symptom severity of social anxiety, social withdrawal and negative personalization bias. In addition, it was found that there was a significant increase social cognition skills (emotion recognition/discrimination skills, reading skills of positive and negative emotions, interpersonal relationships from social functionality measures, evaluation of leisure time, and externalization bias).