Sense of coherence and socia fobia: a descriptive study.

Abstract

The sense of coherence is a variable that encompasses the following dimensions: Comprehensibility (it is possible to understand what happens); Manageability (resources needed to solve problems are available to the person); and Significance (experience that the challenges deserve the efforts). People with a high SOC show a lower presence of psychosomatic symptomatology, depressive symptoms (Flannery and Flannery, 1990), lower indicators of psychopathology and fewer mental health problems (Terja, et al., 2006). Objective. The study was aimed at knowing in a descriptive way the variable “sense of coherence” in 20 people diagnosed with social phobia of a USMC. Method. The design of the research was of a descriptive type in which it was intended to know the scores of the variable “sense of coherence” evaluated through the SOC-13 questionnaire of Antonovsky, in a sample of 20 people with mild levels of depression (measured by Beck’s BDI-II) and diagnosis of social phobia. The fear of negative evaluation was measured through the FNE Results. The people in the study show low levels in the sense of coherence, being the range of possible scores of 13 to 91 points, they obtained an average of 19.78. Conclusions. The results confirm the conclusions of the different studies previously analyzed, being able to observe how lower scores of “sense of coherence” are found in people with psychopathological symptoms (Flannery and Flannery, 1990), and more specifically in social anxiety (Burguillos, 2014). There was a negative relationship between the SOC and the fear of negative evaluation.Therefore, it is necessary to implement psychotherapeutic tools based on this salutogenic construct as a means of protecting mental health.