Assessing Social Anxiety: The Inventory of Interpersonal Situations (IIS)

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rien van Dam-Baggen ◽  
Floris Kraaimaat
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Overt Behavior ◽  
Frequency Scale ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
High Internal Consistency ◽  
Interpersonal Situations

Summary: The purpose of this study was to develop a self-report questionnaire for the assessment of social anxiety in adults. The Inventory of Interpersonal Situations (IIS) consists of 35 items formulated as responses to specific social situations. The IIS is based on an interactive concept of social anxiety and provides scores for both a Discomfort and a Frequency scale. The reliability and validity of the IIS were investigated in several adult psychiatric and nonpsychiatric samples. The scales for Discomfort and Frequency showed stability over time. Cronbach's α's revealed a sufficiently high internal consistency on both scales, while the conceptual structure was shown to be rather invariant across socially anxious and nonsocially anxious groups. The IIS scales were able to discriminate between socially anxious and nonsocially anxious samples, and showed significant relationships with independent measures of social anxiety. The IIS scales demonstrated high predictive validity for overt behavior in social situations.

An Instrument for Measuring the Behavioral Dimension of Social Anxiety

1978 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Zuroff ◽  
J. Conrad Schwarz
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Behavioral Measure ◽  
Check List ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Equivalent Test ◽  
Test Retest Reliability ◽  
Interpersonal Situations

A review of the literature suggested a need for a behavioral measure of characteristic social anxiety, and Rehm and Marston's (1968) role-playing technique was adapted as an analog. This technique requires subjects to place themselves imaginatively in a series of anxiety-producing social situations which are described on a tape recording; their task is to respond to a line of dialog spoken by someone in the situation. Two equivalent test forms were prepared, each of which sampled a wide range of interpersonal situations relevant to both male and female students. Subjects' responses were videotaped and scored using a check list of behavioral anxiety indicators derived from Paul's (1966) list. Interrater reliabilities for the check list score were high ( r = .92), and test-retest reliability over 11 wk. was acceptable ( r = .57). The check list scores were unrelated to Marlowe-Crowne social desirability scores and weakly though positively related to self-report anxiety measures. Limitations of the instrument were pointed out, and suggestions for further validation studies and possible modifications were noted.

The Potential of Video Game Streaming as Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (CHI PLAY) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Julian Frommel ◽  
Martin J. Dechant ◽  
Regan L. Mandryk
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Exposure Therapy ◽  
Cognitive Restructuring ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Controlled Exposure ◽  
Anxiety Treatment ◽  
Social Anxieties ◽  
And Performance

Social anxiety is a prevalent problem that affects many people with varying severity; digital exposure therapy-which involves controlled exposure to simulations of feared social situations alongside cognitive restructuring-can help treat patients with anxieties. However, the need to personalize exposure scenarios and simulate audiences are barriers to treating social anxieties through digital exposure. In this paper, we propose game streaming as an exposure therapy paradigm for social anxiety, supporting it with data from two studies. We first propose a framework describing requirements for exposure therapy and how game streaming can fulfill them. We select demand and performance visibility from these characteristics to showcase how to manipulate them for experiences of gradual exposure. With Study 1, we provide evidence for these characteristics and support for the framework by showing that a game's demand affected expected fear of streaming games. In Study 2, we show that the prospect of streaming led to elevated fear, a necessary property for effective exposure therapy. Further, we show that the effect of streaming on expected fear was similar for participants who can be considered socially anxious. These findings provide evidence for the essential effect of exposure therapy, which serves as a first step towards the validation of streaming as a social anxiety treatment. Our paper provides an initial, important step towards a novel, broadly applicable, and widely accessible digital approach for the treatment of social anxiety.

scholarly journals Screening Social Anxiety in Adolescents Through the Eyes of Their Carers

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis-Joaquin Garcia-Lopez ◽  
Lourdes Espinosa-Fernandez ◽  
Jose-Antonio Muela-Martinez ◽  
Jose Antonio Piqueras
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
Validity Data ◽  
Efficacious Treatment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Strength Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Different Cultures

Despite the availability of efficacious treatment and screening protocols, social anxiety disorder (SAD) in adolescents is considerably under-detected and undertreated. Our main study objective was to examine a brief, valid, and reliable social anxiety measure already tested to serve as self-report child measure but administered via Internet aimed at listening to the ability of his or her parent to identify social anxiety symptomatology in his or her child. This parent version could be used as a complementary measure to avoid his or her overestimation of children of social anxiety symptomatology using traditional self-reported measures. We examined the psychometric properties of brief and valid social anxiety measure in their parent format and administered via the Internet. The sample included 179 parents/legal guardians of adolescents (67% girls) with a clinical diagnosis of SAD (mean age: 14.27; SD = 1.33). Findings revealed good factor structure, internal consistency, and construct validity. Data support a single, strength-based factor on the SPAIB-P, being structure largely invariant across age and gender. The limited number of adolescents with a performance-only specifier prevented examining the utility of scale to screen for this recently established specifier. It is crucial to evaluate if these results generalize to different cultures and community samples. The findings suggest that the SPAIB-P evidences performance comparable with child-reported measure. Parents can be reliable reports of the social anxiety symptomatology of the adolescent. The SPAIB-P may be useful for identifying clinically disturbed socially anxious adolescents.

Prevalence and features of spontaneous recurrent images in social anxiety disorder: findings from a Korean community sample

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Da Eun Suh ◽  
Kyung-Ah Chang ◽  
Ji Un Hwang ◽  
Jung-Hye Kwon
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Distress Level ◽  
Negative Images

AbstractBackground:Previous studies have indicated that people with social anxiety disorder (SAD) often experience spontaneous, recurrent images (SRI). It was assumed that Koreans with interdependent self-views may contain more features related to social contexts in their self-images than those reported in Western cultures.Aims:In the present study, we aimed to explore the prevalence and content of SRIs in individuals with SAD in Korea. Furthermore, we investigated the relationship between features of SRIs and variables of SAD.Method:Sixty-four individuals with SAD (27.00 ± 7.42 years, 64.1% female), diagnosed with SAD, completed self-report questionnaires related to social anxiety. Afterwards, a semi-structured interview was used to assess features and content of the individuals’ SRI.Results:Thirty (47%) of the participants reported experiencing SRIs in social situations. The content of the SRIs were classified under three themes: negative self-images, negative images of others, and abstract images. The distress level of SRIs was positively associated with social phobia scales (r = .385, p < .05) and physical anxiety symptoms (r = .478, p < .05). Frequency of SRIs was positively associated with avoidance scores (r = .402, p < .05).Conclusions:The results demonstrated differences in the prevalence and content of the SRIs between Western and non-Western cultures. Fewer individuals with SAD in Korea reported having SRIs, and the content of these SRIs involved people other than the self. Some features of SRIs were associated with variables of SAD.

The impact of metacognitive beliefs and anticipatory processing on state anxiety in high socially anxious individuals in a speech task

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 588-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Styliani Gkika ◽  
Adrian Wells
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Emotional Disorders ◽  
State Anxiety ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Negative Beliefs ◽  
Anticipatory Processing ◽  
Metacognitive Beliefs ◽  
Perseverative Thinking ◽  
The Impact

The metacognitive model (Wells & Matthews, 1994) proposes that metacognitions (e.g., positive or negative beliefs about worry and thoughts) are involved in emotional disorders alongside perseverative thinking, such as worry. In social anxiety, worry about forthcoming social situations, termed anticipatory processing (AP), is considered an important maintaining factor (Clark & Wells, 1995), but a role of metacognition is less clear. This study investigated AP and metacognition in 80 high socially anxious individuals asked to engage in either AP or a filler task before delivering a speech. AP and higher uncontrollability/danger metacognitive beliefs were associated with greater state anxiety overall. Individuals with higher positive beliefs about worry experienced less of an increase in anxiety before the speech, but their anxiety persisted until after the speech, compared to individuals with lower beliefs. The results support an effect of metacognitions and are discussed in terms of the social anxiety model and its implications.

Relationships among Social Perception, Social Skill, and Social Anxiety of Psychiatric Patients

1983 ◽  
Vol 53 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1175-1178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan L. Fingeret ◽  
Peter M. Monti ◽  
Maryann Paxson
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Perception ◽  
Social Skill ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Response Alternatives

This study examined relationships among measures of social perception and social performance for 63 psychiatric patients. Simulated social situations with differing response alternatives were presented on videotape to patients who judged the most appropriate alternative of three. Patients also participated in role-plays, and their videotaped responses were later rated for social skill and social anxiety. Patients also responded to a self-report inventory of social behavior. Analysis indicated that social perception was correlated with social skill but not with social anxiety. Self-report measures were not correlated with either social perception or social performance. The possible role of social perception in social performance was discussed.

scholarly journals Self-Focused Cognition in Social Anxiety: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice R. Norton ◽  
Maree J. Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Similar Process ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
Growing Body

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterised by a marked and persistent fear of social or performance situations. Cognitive models suggest that self-focused cognitive processes play a crucial role in generating and maintaining social anxiety, and that self-focused cognition occurs prior to, during, and following social situations (Clark & Wells, 1995; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997). There is a substantial body of empirical evidence demonstrating that socially anxious individuals engage in self-focused cognition during and following a social or performance situation. A smaller but growing body literature suggests that a similar process occurs prior to such situations, and that these three processes are interdependent. Furthermore, the vast majority of research to date indicates that self-focused cognitive processes are detrimental, and that they generate and maintain social anxiety in a variety of ways. However, there remains considerable scope for research to further explicate the role of these processes in the maintenance of SAD, and to enhance interventions designed to ameliorate their negative effects.

scholarly journals Social Anxiety and Empathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merle-Marie Pittelkow ◽  
Marije aan het Rot ◽  
Lea Jasmin Seidel ◽  
Nils Feyel ◽  
Annelieke Roest
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Sample Type ◽  
Socially Anxious

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to clarify the association between social anxiety and affective (AE) and cognitive empathy (CE). Methods: 1442 studies from PsycINFO, Medline, and EMBASE (inception-January 2020) were systematically reviewed. Included studies (N = 48) either predicted variance in empathy using social anxiety scores or compared empathy scores between socially anxious individuals and a control group. Results: Social anxiety and AE were statistically significantly positively associated, k = 14, r= .103 (95%CI [.003, .203]), z =2.03, p =.043. Sex (QM (2) = 18.79, p&lt; .0001), and type of measures (QM (1 = 7.34, p =.007) moderated the association. Correlations were significant for male samples (rmale= .316, (95%CI [.200, .432])) and studies using self-report measures (rself-report = .162 (95%CI [.070, .254])). Overall, social anxiety and CE were not significantly associated, k=52, r =-.021 (95%CI [-.075, .034]), z= -0.74, p = .459. Sample type moderated the association (QM (1)= 5.03, p &lt;.0001). For clinical samples the association was negative (rclinical= -.112, (95%CI [-.201, -.017]). Conclusion: There was evidence for a positive association between social anxiety and AE, but future studies are needed to verify the moderating roles of sex and type of measure. Besides, low CE might only hold for patients with SAD.

scholarly journals Not intended, still embarrassed: Social anxiety is related to increased levels of embarrassment in response to unintentional social norm violations

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 15-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam ◽  
Henk van Steenbergen ◽  
Nic J.A. van der Wee ◽  
P. Michiel Westenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
General Population ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Norm Violations ◽  
Symptom Profile ◽  
And Behavior

AbstractBackground:Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is associated with altered social norm (SN) processing: SAD-patients rate stories on SN violations as more inappropriate and more embarrassing than healthy participants, with the most prominent effect for stories on unintentional SN violations (i.e. committing a blunder). Until now it’s unknown how levels of social anxiety (SA) are related to ratings of SN violations in the general population, in which SA-symptoms are present at a continuum. More insight in this relationship could improve our understanding of the symptom profile of SAD. Therefore, we investigated the relation between ratings of SN violations and SA-levels in the general population.Methods:Adults and adolescents (n = 87) performed the revised Social Norm Processing Task (SNPT-R) and completed self-report questionnaires on social anxiety. Repeated-measures ANCOVAs were used to investigate the effect of SA on the ratings of inappropriateness and embarrassment.Results:As hypothesized, participants with higher SA-levels rated SN violations as more inappropriate and more embarrassing. Whereas participants with low-to-intermediate SA-levels rated unintentional SN violations as less embarrassing than intentional SN violations, participants with high SA-levels (z-score SA ≥ 1.6) rated unintentional SN violations as equally embarrassing as intentional SN violations.Conclusion:These findings indicate that increased embarrassment for unintentional SN violations is an important characteristic of social anxiety. These high levels of embarrassment are likely related to the debilitating concern of socially-anxious people that their skills and behavior do not meet expectations of others, and to their fear of blundering. This concern might be an important target for future therapeutic interventions.

scholarly journals EARLY DETECTION OF SOCIAL ANXIETY: RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF A TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF SOCIAL ANXIETY IN YOUNG CHILDREN

2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 787-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koos Bokhorst ◽  
Frits A. Goossens ◽  
Piet A. de Ruyter
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Teacher Rating ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Teacher Rating Scale ◽  
Withdrawn Behavior ◽  
Child Behavior Check List ◽  
Convergent And Divergent Validity ◽  
High Level

Socially anxious children have been described in the literature as at risk of developing increasing emotional problems and of being deprived of valid learning experiences with peers. In order to enable teachers to detect social anxiety in preschoolers the authors developed a scale. The TRSA-“junior” (Teacher Rating Scale of Social Anxiety-“junior”) is a brief Likert-type questionnaire for the identification of social anxiety in 5-to 6-year-old children. Reliability (internal consistency plus test-retest correlation) collected in 2 samples was high. Convergent and divergent validity of this newly developed rating-scale were also studied. A high level of social anxiety correlated with a low level of social participation, as observed on the playground. The TRSA-“junior” score correlated with “internalizing” as measured by the Behavior Questionnaire for Toddlers and Preschoolers (BQTP) and the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL), and with the subscales “anxious-depressed”, “thought problems”, “social problems” and “withdrawn behavior” of the CBCL. In the second study a high score on social anxiety appeared to be related to less positive sociometric judgments by peers. The authors conclude that the TRSA-“junior” may aid in the identification and prevention of social anxiety at an early age. In addition, the scale would appear to be a useful instrument in research, given its sound psychometric qualities.

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