Behavioral assessment of social performance: a rating system for social phobia

The Social Performance Rating Scale (SPRS) is a modification of the rating system for behavioral assessment of social skills, originally developed by Trower, P., Bryant, B., & Argyle, M. (1978). Social skills and mental health. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press) and subsequently adapted by Turner and colleagues (e.g., Turner, S.M., Beidel, D.C., Dancu, C.V., & Keys, D.J. (1986). Psychopathology of social phobia and comparison to avoidant personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 389-394). Designed to yield ratings of social performance appropriate for use in a socially phobic population and based on videotaped role plays, the five SPRS ratings are gaze, vocal quality, speech length, discomfort, and conversation flow. The sum of these ratings provides an internally consistent total score. In an initial study of the psychometric properties of the SPRS, three groups were assessed: individuals with social phobia, another anxiety disorder, or no psychological disorder. Inter-rater reliability for individual items and the total score proved excellent, and positive evidence for convergent, divergent, and criterion-related validity was obtained.