The Effectiveness of Narrative Therapy on the Decrease of Social Phobia in the Female High School Students : Isfahan Marjan Ghavami

The present research aims at examining the effectiveness of narrative therapy on the decrease of social phobia in female high school students in Isfahan for the academic year 2013-14. This quasiexperimental study is of pretest posttest type along with an experimental group and a control group. All the high school students in Isfahan, academic year 2013-14, constituted the statistical population of which 30 students were selected by convenience sampling and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. Narrative therapy was done on the experimental group for 8 sessions. To collect the required data, social phobia inventory developed by Moshveri (2003) was used. Statistical data analysis was done by descriptive statistics including tables, histograms, percentage frequency distributions, mean estimation, and standard deviation and by inferential statistics, which on the basis of research hypotheses, included analysis of covariance. The results of analysis of covariance revealed that there is a meaningful difference between the experimental group and control group in the decrease of social phobia


Introduction
It is a reality that human's life begins among other humans from birth and that s/he communicates with them from that very beginning.The communication shapes his/her behavior and leads to social learning, and, thus, the little child's behavior becomes socialized.The social development of children evolves gradually and almost all types of his/her behavior are affected by his/her surrounding.Social development refers to individual's maturity in social relations so that s/he can be compatible with the people of his/her society.Put it another way, at birth, children are neither social nor unsocial but gain this quality by interactions in the society.Proper social pedagogy compatible with social groups does not occur by itself and without a good fortune (Kennerley, 1995, translated by Mobin, 2002).
Depriving children of development and maturity causes them to have little contact with other people, show no interest in the social life, lose creativity, and reveal unable to plan their future life.It also raises the issues related to socialization and successful symbiosis in adolescence and after that.Of the biggest problems of adolescents are, at present, isolation and successful relationships avoidance originated form 'social phobia'.In the past, isolation was possible by a limited relationship, but, today, it is impossible and the individual need to deepen and broaden his/her relationships with others (Neisi et al, 2006).
According to Himberg, Stein, Hiripi and Kessler (2010), social phobia (often referred to as social anxiety disorder) is a highly prevalent anxiety disorder that is associated with known social situations affecting at least a part of the routine life of the patients.This type of disorder is very disabling and affects many aspects of the patients' life.In severe cases, social phobia can reduce the life quality to a large extent.Some patients do not leave the house for weeks or lose many social chances like educational and job opportunities (Rahmanpour, 2010, Moradi & gholami Renani, 2006).
In the recent decades, several theoretical frameworks have been presented to determine the basic mechanisms of social phobia disorder of which some emphasize the cognitive processes.Clark & Wells (1985&1995), Beck, Emery and Grinberg (1985), Foa & Kozak (1985) introduced one of the primary premises of cognitive approach on anxiety: anxiety is elicited by an expectation of a harmful or negative event: that is, by a perception of threat.Individuals' perception of threat is thought to be determined by their subjective judgments of the probability of a negative event occurring and the cost or aversiveness of that event (Carr, 1974).Thus, overestimates of probability and cost of a negative event is related to social phobia disorder.In their studies, Beck et al. (1985), Foa and Kozak (1985), Foa and Kozak (1986), Foa et al. (1996), Essau, Condrat, andPeterman (2000), and Muris, Merckelbach, Gadel and Moulaert (1999) found out, compared to non-anxious controls, social phobics exaggerated the probability and cost of negative social events.Typically, social phobia disorder begins in adolescence.Schneier, Johnson, Hornig, Liebowitz and Weissman (1992) revealed that children and adolescents may report different types of fear and anxiety.
Language is not only the means to express thoughts and feelings but also the main factor to construct, change, and maintain the realities of human life.By language, in general, and narratives, in particular, the individual communicates with internal concepts as well as external world.Knowledge is acquired by the social context, and the acquired knowledge is communicated through language.Indeed, human has always tried to find and create meaning in life.S/he receives the information not as raw but as different meanings.S/he tries to explore the meanings in everything and the language is the means to communicate these meanings.www.hrmars.comAccordingly, language is used as a clinical means of changing the meanings of people's lives (Morgan, 2000).
The most important key concept in narrative therapy is that the problem is the problem not the individual or family.Narrative therapy is based on the understanding that the language form in which people understand their lives is the storied or narrative form.Rather than viewing people as something, such as a male or a depressive or an anorexic, narrative therapy views people as unique histories.As histories, people give meaning to the events that happen to them.A repertoire of life stories is provided by the culture in which a person lives.Narrative therapy works to assist clients to revise these internalized culture stories into ones that are more inclusive and appreciative of clients' personal power and responsibility (Polkinghorne, 2004).
Narrative therapy attempts to change the cognitive frameworks on which the individual relies in their thinking process.Indeed, narrative therapy does this by critical thinking of cognitive suppositions.This type of therapy is based on the idea that people themselves examine their life stories .i.e., they reconstruct the stories (Abedi, 2006, White &Epson, 1990, Rabiee et al, 2008).
Social anxiety disorder in children and adolescents is related to their strong school refusal (LAST and Straus, 1990).The disorder is also manifested as depression in adolescents.Many techniques and methods such as exposure therapy, practical relaxation, stress control training, social efficacy training, and anxiety control training have already been used to cure social phobia.However, studies have shown that each of the above-mentioned therapies reveals the most notable and useful effect and encompasses different aspects of social phobia.
Regarding the importance of Narrative therapy and it positive effect on the decrease of anxiety, shyness, and depression, the present research examines the effectiveness of narrative therapy, which is strongly supported by theory and research, on the decrease of the individuals' social phobia.

Methodology
The present study was done to examine the effectiveness of narrative therapy on the decrease of social phobia in female high school students in Isfahan.The study is of quasi-experimental type with an experimental group and a control group.As seen in table 3, there is a meaningful difference between social phobia scores of control and experimental groups in the posttest level: P<0.01.As the students' mean scores of social phobia in the posttest level decreased in comparison with the pretest level, it can be concluded that narrative therapy is effective on the decrease of students' social phobia.

Discussion and Conclusion
The mean scores of social phobia were 65.73 for the experimental group in the posttest level and those of the control group, 104.40.Furthermore, the results of table 3 showed a meaningful difference between social phobia scores of control and experimental groups in the posttest level: P<0.01.As the students' mean scores of social phobia in the posttest level decreased in comparison with the pretest level, it can be concluded that narrative therapy is effective on the decrease of students' social phobia.
Considering the above-mentioned result, it can be stated that narrative therapy had a positive effect on the life of people.In fact, by narrative therapy, they gained new attitudes towards the realities of life, reduced negative thinking and feelings like fear, phobia, and anxiety about future, and improved their interpersonal relations.Since the control group received no narrative therapy training, no meaningful differences were observed in pretest and posttest levels.
Social phobia disorder is a persistent disorder which lasts forever in the patients.However, aging sometimes decreases the risk of it.Social phobia is prevalent in the families, particularly, the first-degree relatives and family members (Navidian &Abedi, 2008)
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