Social anxiety is one of the common problems among university students and can affect their academic performance, social relationships, and mental health. Since negative interpretation bias, poor cognitive flexibility, and difficulties in emotion regulation play a role in the maintenance of this problem, investigating cognitive-emotional interventions in this area is important.

The present study is a quantitative quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design and three groups. The statistical population includes male and female students aged 18 to 30 from universities in Tehran during the 2025–2026 academic year. The research sample will consist of 45 students with symptoms of social anxiety, selected through purposive voluntary sampling and then assigned to three 15-member groups: positive imagery training, a combined intervention of positive imagery training and cognitive bias modification, and a control group.

First, all participants will complete the pretest. Then, the first experimental group will receive positive imagery training over three weekly sessions. The second experimental group will receive positive imagery training in addition to cognitive bias modification exercises for interpretation. During this period, the control group will receive no intervention and will only participate in the pretest and posttest stages. One week after the end of the intervention, the posttest will be administered to all three groups.

The research instruments include the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, an interpretation bias assessment tool, the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The data will be analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance and mediation analysis with the PROCESS macro in SPSS.