Evaluation of the Social Interaction Self-Statement Test with a Social Phobic Population

Authors

Cynthia S. Dodge, State University of New York at Albany
Debra A. Hope, State University of New York at AlbanyFollow
Richard G. Heimberg, State University of New York at AlbanyFollow
Robert E. Becker, Medical College of Pennsylvania

ORCID IDs

Debra A. Hope

Date of this Version

4-1988

Citation

Cognitive Therapy and Research 12:2 (April 1988), pp. 211–222.

doi: 10.1007/BF01204932

Comments

Copyright © 1988 Plenum Publishing Corporation/Kluwer. Used by permission.

Abstract

The convergent and discriminant validity of the Social Interaction Self-Statement Test (SISST) were evaluated in a sample of men and women awaiting treatment for fear and avoidance of social interactions. Partial correlations revealed that negative, but not positive, self-statement scores were generally related to self-report measures of anxiety and depression. Heart rate and subjective anxiety ratings derived from a behavioral simulation of a personally relevant anxiety-provoking situation were unrelated to SISST scores. However, subjects’ reports of negative thoughts obtained via the thought-listing procedure were related to the SISST negative self-statement scores, suggesting that the negative subscale of the SISST and the thought-listing procedure tap similar dimensions. Finally, the negative subscale of the SISST discriminated between social phobics whose primary fear involved social interactions and social phobics whose anxiety was confined to public-speaking situations. The findings support the use of the SISST with clinically socially anxious patients.