Social skills and irrational beliefs: a preliminary report

Recent studies have suggested that irrational beliefs, as measured by the Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT), may contribute to social skills deficits. However, studies evaluating the correspondence between irrational beliefs and behavioral indices of social skills and social anxiety have yet to be reported. IBT data obtained from social skill deficit patient populations also have yet to appear in the literature. The present study addresses these issues by presenting IBT data obtained from a sample of 63 psychiatric patients referred for assessment of social skills deficits and evaluating the relationship of these data and patients' performance on a standardized behavioral measure of social skills and social anxiety, the Simulated Social Interaction Test (SSIT); and, presenting a comparison between IBT subscale scores obtained from the psychiatric sample and those obtained from a large (n = 897) student sample. A weak relationship was found between two IBT subscales and the SSIT. A mean level difference between patients' performance and student norms was also found on four subscales of the IBT. Implications for further assessment and treatment research with the IBT, social anxiety and social skills are discussed.