التشوهات المعرفیة لدى طلاب الجامعة وعلاقتها بکل من القلق الاجتماعی وإدمان الانترنت. Cognitive Distortions among University Students and Its Correlation with both Social Anxiety and Internet Addiction

Abstract

This research aims to find out the level of cognitive distortions among university students, and its correlation with both social anxiety and internet addiction, predicting social anxiety and internet addiction through cognitive distortions as well as testing the mediating role of social anxiety between cognitive distortions and internet addiction. The study sample consisted of (250) students from the Faculty of Education, Al-Azhar University. Three instruments were utilized in the current research, namely cognitive distortions scale, social anxiety scale, and internet addiction scale. The results of the research showed a high level of cognitive distortions among university students, a positive correlation between cognitive distortions and both social anxiety and internet addiction with the possibility of predicting social anxiety and internet addiction through cognitive distortions. Additionally, the results showed that cognitive distortions (personal explanations-overgeneralization-self-underestimation) are the most contributing to predicting social anxiety, and distortions (selective abstraction-dichotomous thinking-over-generalization-selfunderestimation-personal explanations) are the most important contributors to predicting internet addiction. Furthermore, the results showed the mediating role of social anxiety between cognitive distortions and internet addiction.