Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Japanese version of Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS). The SPS assesses fear of being scrutinized during performance in the presence of others, while the SIAS assesses fear of social interaction. Six-hundred and fifteen undergraduate students and 21 outpatients with soclal phobia completed the SPS and the SIAS. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the SPS included 20-items loading on one factor, which was named "Fear of being scrutinized" and the SIAS included 20-items loading on two factors, which were named "Soclal interaction anxiety" and "Deficit of _self-efficacy In social interactive situation". Internal consistency of both scales were sufficiently high (SPS : α=0.91. SIAS : α=0.72-0.92) . Results of t test revealed that patients with social phobia showed higher scores than undergraduate students for both scales. Therefore, it was concluded that the SPS and the SIAS have high discriminant validity. The SPS and the SIAS correlated moderately with other self-report measures of social anxiety. Furthermore, the SPS and the SIAS predicted anxious response to speech situations. It was suggested that the SPS and the SIAS have high validity and potential for clinical and research application. Finally, the efficacy of these scales for evaluating subtypes of social phobia was discussed.
