Effect of cognitive behavior group counseling on social anxiety and psychological flexibility of university students

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of cognitive behavioral group therapy on social anxiety and psychological flexibility levels of university students. In this research, explanatory design, which is one of the mixed models in which qualitative and quantitative researches are used together, was used. In the quantitative part of the study, pre test-post test matching control grouped quasi-experimental design has been used in the study. In the qualitative part, the case study, which is among the qualitative research designs, was used. The study group was formed on students selected Guidance and Psychological Counseling in Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi as of 2020-2021 academic Year. Research data was collected from 204 students from all grade levels. In the research, 'Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale' developed Leibowitz (1987) and adapted into turkish by Soykan, Özgüven ve Gençöz (2003) and 'psychological flexibility scale' developed Francis, Dawson ve Golijani Moghaddam (2016) and adapted into turkish by Karakuş ve Akbay (2020) was used. Among the data obtained from the scales applied to the students, 15 students with high social anxiety scores and low psychological flexibility scores were included in the experimental and control groups. Students with high social anxiety level and low psychological flexibility were determined by taking the mean score one standard deviation above and below. After the groups were determined, psychological counseling with the cognitive behavioral group was applied to the experimental group once a week for 12 weeks. No studies were conducted with the control group. Mann Whitney U-Test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test were used in the analysis of quantitative data. Content analysis was used in the analysis of the qualitative data of the research. As a result of the research, it was observed that the social anxiety scores of the experimental group decreased, while the psychological flexibility scores increased. It was observed that there was no significant difference between the social anxiety and psychological flexibility pretest-posttest scores of the control group. When the social anxiety and psychological flexibility posttest scores of the experimental and control groups were examined, it was found that there was a significant difference in favor of the experimental group. In the follow-up study, it was observed that the effect of the cognitive behavioral group and the psychological counselor continued in the follow-up measurements taken 10 weeks later. When the opinions of the participants participating in the group counseling practice are examined, it is seen that the cognitive behavioral group counseling is effective on social anxiety and psychological flexibility.