Online Psychotherapy for Emotional Reasoning Bias in Public Speaking Anxiety

ERPSAS is a self-report instrument consisting of the presentation of 4 scenarios with different endings depending on whether objective safety or danger information is presented and whether there is an anxiety response or not. Based on these scenarios the participant must measure, on a visual analog scale (VAS) from 0 to 100, the degree of danger, safety, controllability, desire to avoid the situation and degree of discomfort. The sum of these scales provides a single perceived threat score providing a measure to determine the presence of the Emotional Reasoning Bias. If the participant evaluates emotional situations as threatening without objective information of danger, the presence of an Emotional Reasoning bias arises. The scale has a range of 0-96 points (M= 36.57; SD= 14.18). The higher the score, the greater the emotional reasoning bias, with the cut-off point being a score of 47. Participants scoring above half a standard deviation above the mean will be included.

The Public Speaking Anxiety Scale, which contains 17 items with a 5-point Likert-type response format (1=Not at all, 5=Extremely). This scale measures the presence and severity of cognitive, behavioural, and physiological symptomatology related to fear of public speaking, with a cut-off point of 73 (M= 49.33; SD= 12.88). Participants scoring above half a standard deviation above the mean will be included.

OASIS is a 5-item self-report instrument that assesses a unidimensional factor related to the severity and frequency of anxiety symptoms, as well as behavioral avoidance and functional impairment associated with these symptoms in the past week. Each item has five response options, coded from 0 to 4. The total score is calculated by adding the values of all items, ranging from 0 to 20. Scores higher than 8 indicate the presence of anxiety symptoms. This scale has been validated online in a sample of patients with depression and anxiety, demonstrating good internal consistency (α=0.86), as well as adequate convergent and discriminant validities, and sensitivity to change.

ODSIS is a 5-item self-report instrument that the severity and functional impairment linked to depression over the past week. Each item has five response options coded from 0 to 4. The total score is calculated by summing the values of all items, ranging from 0 to 20. Scores of 5 or above suggest depressive symptoms. This scale was validated online using a sample of patients with depressive or anxiety disorders. It demonstrates excellent internal consistency (α=0.92), and its construct, convergent, and discriminant validities are supported.

The QLI is a 10-item self-report instrument that assesses a single concept of quality of life across 10 dimensions using a ten-point Likert scale (1=poor; 10=excellent). The dimensions include physical well-being, psychological/emotional well-being, self-care and independent functioning, occupational functioning, interpersonal functioning, social-emotional support, community and services support, personal fulfillment, spiritual fulfillment, and overall perception of quality of life. The total score is the average of the item scores, ranging from 1 to 10 (1-4.5 = below average quality of life; 4.6-8.1 = average quality of life; 8.2-10 = above average quality of life). The QLI demonstrates high internal consistency (α=0.89) and test-retest reliability (0.89), with discriminant validity evidenced in a sample of psychiatric patients.

The SUS is a 10-item self-report instrument designed to assess opinions on system usability using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Completely disagree) to 5 (Completely agree). The content validity index of the Spanish version of the SUS was favorable, with a rating of 0.92 for item relevance. The Cronbach's α was 0.812.

Satisfaction and acceptance with the training will be assessed using questions developed by our team and previously used in studies with technology (Suso-Ribera, Castilla, Zaragozá, Ribera-Canudas, Botella, & García-Palacios, 2018). Examples of items include "To what extent are you satisfied with the intervention?" and "To what extent would you recommend the intervention?".