The Relation between Homework Compliance and Treatment Outcome for Individuals with Social Phobia

Homework compliance has been identified as a robust predictor of treatment outcome for depression and, to a lesser extent, anxiety disorders, including social phobia. The current study tested the following hypotheses: (1) homework compliance is positively related to ratings of global improvement, (2) homework compliance is negatively related to symptom reduction, (3) the relation between homework compliance and treatment outcome varies according to the nature of the homework exercise, and (4) expectancy is positively related to early homework compliance, in a clinical sample of individuals with social phobia. Results provided limited support for the relation between compliance and ratings of improvement, but did not support a negative relation between compliance and symptom reduction. Further, the results provided limited support for the hypothesis that compliance with exposure versus non-exposure homework would differ significantly in terms of their relation to treatment outcome, but did not support the relation between compliance and expectancy. iv DEDICATION I would like to thank my family and friends for your continued love and encouragement. I have been humbled by the tremendous amount of support that I have received and will be forever grateful. Thank you for all that you have done and all that you will continue to do to help me achieve my dreams, it is only through each and every one of you that these dreams may become a reality. I would also like to dedicate this thesis to the loving memory of two extraordinarily important women, my Mom and my aunt Nang, who both raised and influenced me in so many special ways. Though I am deeply saddened that the two of you cannot be here, with me, now to celebrate this accomplishment, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to share my goals and dreams with each of you as I embarked upon my graduate school journey. I am comforted in knowing that your belief in me never faded. This accomplishment would not have been possible without your unwavering love and encouragement. Thank you both for always believing in me and for giving me the strength and courage to believe in myself. I miss and love you both more than you can imagine.