• Effect of group therapy based on acceptance and commitment with psychodrama on shyness in people with a social anxiety disorder
  • Samaneh Eshaghzadeh,1 Maliheh Eshaghzadeh,2,* Mohammad Amin Khezri,3 Majid Hasanzadeh,4
    1. MSc in Clinical Psychology, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran
    2. Instructor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran
    3. Student Research Committee, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran
    4. Instructor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran


  • Introduction: Shyness is a common problem in people with a social anxiety disorder that avoids social situations for different people. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of group therapy based on acceptance and commitment with psychodrama on shyness in people with a social anxiety disorder.
  • Methods: The present study was experimental with pre-test and post-test, and a test group and three control groups (a total of 48) with random allocation and random sampling. The intervention group received 12 treatment sessions based on the acceptance and commitment with the psychodrama protocol. One of the control groups at this stage received the only treatment of acceptance and commitment, and the other control group at this stage received only the treatment of psychodrama. The fourth group received no treatment at this stage. To collect information, Stanford Shyness Survey were used. Data were analyzed by SPSS-20, descriptive statistics and covariance analysis.
  • Results: The results showed that there was no significant difference between the pre-test scores between the groups (P= 0.93). The results of covariance analysis also showed that educational intervention had a positive effect on reducing the shyness level of individuals, so that the mean score of shyness in the group treated with both methods was less than other groups (P= 0.02).
  • Conclusion: This study showed that the combination of acceptance and commitment based therapy and psychodrama could increase the effectiveness of psychodrama treatment and acceptance and commitment treatment. Therefore, it is recommended that therapists use this combination therapy to improve the response rate to the treatment of patients with social anxiety disorder and shyness of people with this disorder.
  • Keywords: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Psychodrama, Social Anxiety Disorder