title: Outcome expectancy as a predictor of treatment response in cognitive behavioral therapy for public speaking fears within social anxiety disorder.
abstract: Outcome expectancy, the extent that clients anticipate benefiting from therapy, is theorized to be an important predictor of treatment response for cognitive-behavioral therapy. However, there is a relatively small body of empirical research on outcome expectancy and the treatment of social anxiety disorder. This literature, which has examined the association mostly in group-based interventions, has yielded mixed findings. The current study sought to further evaluate the effect of outcome expectancy as a predictor of treatment response for public-speaking fears across both individual virtual reality and group-based cognitive-behavioral therapies. The findings supported outcome expectancy as a predictor of the rate of change in public-speaking anxiety during both individual virtual reality exposure therapy and group cognitive-behavioral therapy. Furthermore, there was no evidence to suggest that the impact of outcome expectancy differed across virtual reality or group treatments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: Page L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group / Q000379:methods; D013060:Speech; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014743:Videotape Recording