Changing Your Anxious Thoughts and Expectations
109designed to help individuals recognize how their beliefs and assumptions contribute to 
their negative emotions, and to overcome psychological suffering by changing these neg -
ative thoughts. Ellis called his form of treatment  rational emotive therapy  and later renamed 
it rational emotive behavior therapy  (REBT, 1993). Meichenbaum referred to his form of treat -
ment as cognitive-behavior modiﬁcation (CBM). It was Aaron Beck, however, who ﬁrst 
used the term cognitive therapy  to describe his treatment. Each of these three new treat -
ments was developed at about the same time, and they were quite similar with respect 
to their underlying assumptions and some of the treatment strategies used.
Over the years, Beck’s form of treatment has become more popular and prominent 
than either Ellis’s or Meichenbaum’s approaches. Furthermore, Beck’s cognitive therapy 
has been subjected to more rigorous study than either REBT or CBM for the treatment 
of social anxiety. Therefore, the methods discussed in this chapter are based on those 
proposed by Beck and his collaborators, as well as others who adapted and expanded 
upon Beck’s methods for treating social anxiety and related problems.
ASSUMPTIONS OF COGNITIVE THERAPY  
FOR SOCIAL ANXIETY
Here are some of the basic assumptions of cognitive therapy, particularly as related to 
the treatment of shyness, social anxiety, and performance fears.
1. Negative emotions are caused by negative interpretations and beliefs. People 
who interpret a given situation in different ways are likely to experience dif -
ferent emotions. For example, imagine that a friend of yours has cancelled 
a dinner date at the last minute without providing a reason. Below is a list 
of possible emotional reactions you might have depending on your beliefs