The Effectiveness of Self-acceptance Group Therapy in Reducing the Fear of Negative Evaluation, Internal Shame, and Self-concept of People Suffering from Social Anxiety

Background: Social anxiety disorder can be considered a debilitating disorder characterized by negative evaluation by others, internal shame, negative self-concept, and high levels of anxiety and avoidance in social situations. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of self-acceptance group therapy (SAGT) in reducing the fear of negative evaluation, internal shame, and self-concept of people with social anxiety disorder. Methods: The samples of this experimental study included all people with social anxiety who were studying at the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili in Ardabil. A total of 36 people with social anxiety were selected using a social anxiety questionnaire and a structured interview and were randomly divided into two groups: experiment and control (18 people in each group). The experiment group underwent ten sessions of self-acceptance intervention, while the control group received no intervention. The Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) questionnaire, the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNES-B), Cook’s internal shame questionnaire, and Rogers’ self-concept questionnaire were used for data collection in the pre-test and post-test stages. The multivariate analysis of covariance test and SPSS 24 software were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that the average social anxiety in the experiment group was 60.88±6.26 on the pre-test and 60.16±3.98 on the post-test (P<0.001). Negative evaluation, with an average of 40.83±3.57 in the pre-test and 28.61±7.22 in the posttest (P<0.001), decreased the most. The total score of internal shame in the experiment group was 77.16±6.33 in the pre-test, and 74.55±6.50 in the post-test (P<0.001), and the total score of self-concept was 124.2±8.9 in the pre-test, which reached 134.4±9.50 in post-test (P<0.001). Based on the results of covariance analysis, after adjusting the pre-test scores, social anxiety, negative evaluation, internal shame, and self-concept significantly decreased in the self-acceptance therapy group in the post-test (P<0.001). Conclusion: The results showed that self-acceptance therapy significantly reduced the fear of negative evaluation and internal shame and improved the negative self-concept of people with social anxiety disorder compared to the control group. While consistent with other results, the obtained results have provided a preliminary ground for the use of the mentioned treatment. However, future research should better show the usefulness of this technique in different dimensions.