The perception of social cognitive is under great influence from human ideas that human beings are planners, evaluators of behavior as well as the decision makers. The theorist of social cognitive put into account the contribution of the other people behavior, individual learning expectancies, and observation that enables to understand the personality patterns. The theory argues that much of human learning is through observation because when people observe others they acquire knowledge that includes beliefs, skills, and even attitude (Denler, 2014). The theory focuses on the cognitive, aspects of emotions, behavior, and change in behavior.
The assumptions about the theory are that behavior, personal factors and the environment around the individual influences the way human beings lives in the social world. Bandura (1989). The other assumption is that human beings can be able to learn particular behavior by observing the models and imitating whatever it is there in the models (Anaeto, Onabajo, and Osifeso, 2008). People also have the ability to influence their own behavior in a specific direction when they want to (Bandura, 2001 and Denler, 2014).
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Social anxiety also known as the social phobia is among some of the mental disorder people are experiencing. The best treatment method for the phobia according to Clark (1995) is cognitive behavioral therapy. The paper will focus on the use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in the treatment of social phobia especially in the children and adolescent groups. Beck manages to develop the method of treatment as psychotherapy for depression that helps in solving and modifying the dysfunctional thinking and behaviors of the people (Beck A, 1990). The model suggests that the distortion in the mood and the behavior of the individual is because of psychological disturbances.
The model has undergone testing for effective treatment and the first success was in the year 1977 (Beck A, 1990). The model is very effective in helping the individuals suffering from the phobia and other disorders like depression and stress. The persistent fear for the embarrassment and humiliation in public places leads to social phobia. According to Kesser (1994), in the United States 13.3% of the population, suffer from social phobia at some point in their lifetime. The normally describes the disorder as the missed opportunity illness because it affects the ability of the individual to progress well in social issues like marital success and development in the career. From the perspective of a social cognitive view, the individual suffering from the social phobia develops negative assumptions on their social world basing it on the negative experiences and observations. The way in which people with phobia focuses on the negativity and having biased memory, they will never have a chance to live in a positive world they will always think that the world is against them.
Another cause of the social phobia is lack of social skills and awareness of the own social skills. People living with social phobia show some variance in their knowledge concerning social behavioral skills that are appropriate for them. Most of these people seem to have enough social skills when they undergo assessment in a suitable environment free from any form of threats. However, they are not able to make use of the skills whenever they are in an environment that is not familiar or when they feel threatened. There are also some groups of people suffering from social phobia, who know their skills well but because of several failures and disappointments, they tend to go astray from appropriate social behaviors. Additionally, there are also issues that are related to the development and psychodynamic in connection to the etiology of social phobia. In this connection, a child who faces rejection from their parents, teachers, or even their friends may experience a feeling of low esteem and social rejection. Furthermore, traumatic embarrassment may force someone to lose self-confidence and increase the anxiety leading to poor performance hence social phobia. In most cases, many people suffering from the disorder rare see the physician for reasons associated with the phobia but due to the reasons like that of depression substance abuse and other anxiety related reasons.
The treatment of social phobia can be pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy where pharmacotherapy becomes the choice when the disorder is in complication with depression. Nevertheless, CBT has the first priority in the treatment of the social phobia. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence provides concrete evidence that CBT is the most effective when it is in comparison with other intervention over a period of time (NICE, 2004). The institute argued that the treatment method is even more fruitful in comparison to non-specific and psychodynamic treatments.
Rosser, Erskine & Crino in the year 2004 mange to conduct research focusing on the treatment of phobia using antidepressants and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The results did not show any significant difference in the treatment, therefore, allowing for the conclusion that pre-use of antidepressants does not enhance or affect the positive response of the treatment. The combination of medical and CBT is common in the treatment of social phobia in many places. Three possible outcomes are achievable in combining medication and CBT treatment methods. The combination of the treatment may result in better treatment outcome than one treatment alone, and CBT reduces the lapse rate when there is discontinuation of the medication. There will be no significant difference when an individual treatment and combined method because each method is strong on its own. The last possible outcome will be the effectiveness of the CBT that may get interference due to the use of combined medication in comparison to when CBT alone is in use. In reference to the literature, focusing on the treatment of social phobia by Rosser (2004) the combination of the treatment or using one alone does not have any significance to the outcome of the treatment. The use CBT alone has been very successful in controlling the symptoms and reducing relapses and in minimizing the cost of treatment in comparison when both methods are in use at the same time.
Another study by Rodebaugh & Heimberg (2005) also suggests that relaxation training without the combination of CBT have no significant clinical benefits to the individuals. However, the combination of both relaxation training and CBT has a success in the relaxation treatment. CBT plays a significant role in reducing the fear through modification of maladaptive behaviors thoughts and even beliefs. The combining of the methods have both strengths and weaknesses even though the clinicians normally use different methods of combinations of CBT with other methods to ensure that there are maximum effective results.
From a psychological point of view, CBT is the most recommended method for treating the social phobia basing the judgment on the evidence-based researches. Even though many psychologists support CBT as the most effective method for treatment, it is not always successful to all the individuals. It is therefore very essential for the clinicians to combine different therapeutic treatment methods that are pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy aiming not only to enhance the success of the treatment but also to make it effective to different individuals from varying background and life- experiences. Despite the fact that CBT is the most recommended as the priority therapy method there are still some practical issues, which need to be in place concerning demand for services.
The availability of finances and the professional personnel who can provide the service normally becomes the main challenges for it use in the treatment of social phobia. In most cases, the way of solving these problems involves the use of group CBT and the CCBT. The use of methods is very complex and always difficult in countries or places where there are rare psychotherapists or methods like CCBT are inaccessible or unaffordable. The addition to the challenges of using CCBT is that it is not possible to the countries that English is not their native language or no use at all. Basing it on the global view, CBT as a therapy for treating social phobias is of more challenge because there is limited professional who can handle the method as well as resources constraints. Due to these challenges, the only applicable method that most of the people can access and afford is pharmacotherapy making it the most used method in the treatment of social phobia.
There are also some components that psychotherapist use to combines with CBT so that it enables successful treatment for social phobia. The components include cognitive restructuring, systematic exposure, and mindful training. Cognitive Restructuring. In most cases, the patients suffering from social phobia have catastrophic thoughts in connection to their phobia. They really underestimate their ability to withstand the fear and challenges that come about during difficult time. Restructuring of the cognitive of the individual is very essential in ensuring that they manage the counterproductive thoughts and substitute them with positive thoughts that enable them to reduce the level of anxiety and rejections. The process enables patients to accept themselves. Systematic exposure is another important component that compliments the use of CBT in the treatment of social phobia.
The exposure is essential in helping people to do regular contact with what causes fear them. The technique exposes the individual repeatedly to what causes fear until it does not evoke any anxiety. The approach uses a grading technique that exposes the individuals starting with the least fearing situation as they change gradually to the most fearing situation. When a person manages to master the first stimulus, one proceeds to the next stimulus. The next stimulus should be slightly more triggering in comparison with the first stimulus. If someone has a phobia for a spider, for instance, one should start with talking about the spiders the next step is looking at pictures of the spiders. For exposure to work perfectly, cognitive restructuring should start before coming to systematic exposure. The reason behind this is that the anxiety of the people normally decreases significantly and become prepared to handle the fears whenever they change their thinking. The last component is mindfulness training. This is a process of bringing the attention of an individual into the present. The process is significant in the treatment of phobia because sometimes people are so much into their thoughts concerning what they fear the most to the point of becoming difficult to recognize the presence of the feared objects presents no form of threats. It is possible for someone to be so much into what are thinking to point that will be very easy tune out the environment.
The use of CBT in the treatment of phobia has no any side effects other than temporary discomfort unlike the use of drugs. The therapist must have the knowledge on how to administer the treatment in the right way for it to achieve a high level of success. During the treatment process therapist, normally assign the person with the disorder with homework that requires frequent exercise between sessions. The treatment both CBT and behavioral therapy normally take about twelve weeks. Therapists normally do a group treatment when they are able to have people suffering from the same problems. Supportive therapy is also very important to the success of using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. They are groups, couples, or family therapy that plays a major role in educating other people mainly about the disorders (David, 2003). In some cases, people having problems of social anxiety can benefit from training that enhances the social skills. Training helps them in boosting their ability to believe in themselves and have a positive perception about the environment around them. It is always advisable for people having social anxiety to seek competent cognitive and behavioral therapists.
In conclusion, the successful use of the CBT should be in use as a method of treating social phobia this is because it is showing good results even though it is inaccessible and unaffordable to many. One can state that the method is useful and very successful therapeutic measure for social disorders. Its practical use can still be improved through constant researches and training programs to expose people to the treatment method. The psychologist and the patients are not the only people responsible in ensuring successful treatment, support from the families and the society is key to the rapid recovery from social phobia. Another important thing is the management of the patient from time to time to enable the tracking of improvements and developments. There are three main components that ensure that there is a good recovery from social phobia and this are; inspiration, encouragement, and enlightening of those having the social disorder. The patients suffering from social phobia need proper attention. This enables one to identify the symptoms that are associated with the disorder. The side effects of the disorder have a great implication on the social development of an individual.
References
Anaeto, S. G. (2008). Theories and Models of Communication. Bowie, Maryland: African Renaissance.
Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual review of psychology, 52, 1, 1-26.
Beck A, S. R. (1990). The Beck Anxiety Inventory: Manual. San Antonio, Texas: Psychological Corporation.
Clark D. M, W. A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia-Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment. New York: Guilford.
David. (2003). Treatment of social phobia. Advances Psychiatric Treatment, 9 , 258-264.
Denler, H. W. (2014). Social cognitive theory. New York: CRC Press.
Rosser, S. E. (2004). Pre-existing antidepressants and the outcome of group cognitive behaviour therapy for social phobia. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 38,4, 233-239.
