Abstract
Efectiveness of cognitive-behavioural treatment in social phobia: A meta-analytic review. Behavioural and cognitive treatments (BCT) for social phobia quantitatively are reviewed. The average effect size (weighted by the inverse of the variance) was 0.77 at the posttest and 0.95 at the follow-up. These results enable us to affirm, in global terms, that BCT for social phobia is clearly effective. Nevertheless, the homogeneity test did not reach statistical significance, so we can assume that the effectiveness of exposure techniques, cognitive restructuring techniques and social skills training can be considered homogeneous. This fact questions the underlying psychological principles in the effectiveness of BCT. An explanation based on feared social stimuli exposure is proposed.
