Yousef Asmari1, Behrouz Dolatshahi2, Hamid Poursharifi2 and Usha Barahmand3*
usha.barahmand@qc.cuny.edu
1 University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
2 Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
3 City University of New York, Queens College, New York, USA.
Abstract
Introduction: Recently emotion-focused therapy has developed as an additional approach and considers the role of primary emotions such as shame in the formation and persistence of SAD.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the theoretical model of emotion-focused therapy for SAD by considering the role of early negative memories, humiliation and the mediating role of self-defectiveness/shame schema in the etiology of SAD.
Method: This cross-sectional descriptive study recruited a sample of 105 students, 44 males (41.9%) 61 females (58.1%), diagnosed with SAD by psychologists from Shahid Beheshti University Counseling Center. Participants ranging in age from 18 to 34 with a mean age of 23.1 years (SD=3.5) completed the Social Phobia Inventory, Humiliation Inventory, Early Life Experiences Scale, Defectiveness /Shame Schema subscale of the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form.
Results: Data were analyzed using SmartPLS-SEM. The results showed that early childhood experiences and humiliation significantly predict SAD. Also, the indirect effects of the independent variables through defectiveness/shame schema on SAD were significant.
Conclusions: Consistent with the assumptions of the emotion-focused approach to SAD, these results confirm that early life experiences and humiliation with the development of shame schemes play an important role in the etiology of SAD and must be considered for therapy to be effective. The result of this study suggests that the components of the emotion-focused model can have therapeutic value as targets of intervention in randomized clinical trials.
Please cite this article as: Asmari, Y., Dolatshahi, B., Poursharifi, H., & Barahmand, U. (2022). EARLY NEGATIVE MEMORIES, HUMILIATION AND DEFECTIVENESS/SHAME SCHEMA: AN EMOTION-FOCUSED THERAPEUTIC APPROACH TO SOCIAL ANXIETY. Journal of Evidence-Based Psychotherapies, 22(1), 117-135.
DOI: 10.24193/jebp.2022.1.7
Published online: 2022/03/01
Published print: 2022/03/01
Keywords: social anxiety disorder, emotion-focused therapy, defectiveness/ shame schema, humiliation
