Everything Starts With Small Talk

2019 ◽  
pp. 191-204
Author(s):  
Debra A. Hope ◽  
Richard G. Heimberg ◽  
Cynthia L. Turk
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Automatic Thoughts ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Small Talk ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Primary Focus

Many individuals in treatment for social anxiety have some difficulty with casual conversations, even if it is not the primary focus of treatment. The chapter explores why it is important to be able to make casual conversation and then examines some of the automatic thoughts that socially anxious individuals often have in casual conversation and how to challenge those automatic thoughts. This chapter presents psychoeducational material about the importance of small talk in everyday life. Two primary messages from this material are (a) casual conversations are the gateways to more significant relationships and (b) such conversations are, by definition, about inconsequential topics. The chapter talks about two key types of situations in which many people experience social anxiety—conversations and public speaking.

Exposure and Cognitive Restructuring

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-128
Author(s):  
Debra A. Hope ◽  
Richard G. Heimberg ◽  
Cynthia L. Turk
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cognitive Restructuring ◽  
Automatic Thoughts ◽  
Small Talk ◽  
Session Time ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Conversational Skills ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Primary Focus

Many individuals in treatment for social anxiety have some difficulty with casual conversations, even if it is not the primary focus of treatment. This chapter presents psychoeducational material about the importance of small talk in everyday life. The amount of in-session time spent will depend on how central this topic is to the specific client and how well the client is able to glean key points from the reading on their own. Two primary messages from this material are (a) casual conversations are the gateways to more significant relationships and (b) such conversations are, by definition, about inconsequential topics. Conversational situations are often the easiest exposures to design. They typically require few props, and a variety of circumstances can be easily staged. This chapter covers three typical automatic thoughts for conversations: not knowing what to say, not having anything interesting to say, and having poor conversational skills.

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.

scholarly journals Look at the Audience? A Randomized Controlled Study of Shifting Attention From Self-Focus to Nonsocial vs. Social External Stimuli During Virtual Reality Exposure to Public Speaking in Social Anxiety

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa F. Wechsler ◽  
Michael Pfaller ◽  
Rahel E. van Eickels ◽  
Luise H. Schulz ◽  
Andreas Mühlberger
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
Attention Training ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Significant Time ◽  
External Focus ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
The Social

Background: Enhanced self-focused attention plays a central role in the maintenance and treatment of Social Anxiety and is targeted in contemporary cognitive behavioral therapy. Actual developments use Virtual Reality (VR) for behavioral training. However, no VR attention training combining exposure to public speaking with shifting attention from self-focus to external focus has been investigated, and no experimental evidence exists on different kinds of external cues as targets of attention. Therefore, we investigated the effects of an attention training during public speaking in VR and examined differential effects of an external focus on nonsocial vs. social stimuli.Methods: In this randomized controlled study, highly socially anxious participants were instructed to focus on either objects or the audience within a virtual speech task. We assessed the pre-post effects on affective reactions, self-perception, and attentional processes during public speaking as well as general Social Anxiety using subjective, physiological, and eye-tracking measures. Repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were calculated to detect changes from pretest to posttest over both groups, and time × group interaction effects.Results: Within the analysis sample (n = 41), anxiety during public speaking and fear of negative evaluation significantly decreased, with no significant differences between groups. No significant time effect, but a significant time × group effect, was found for the looking time proportion on the audience members' heads. Follow-up tests confirmed a significant increase in the social-focus group and a significant decrease in the nonsocial-focus group. For all other variables, except external focus and fear of public speaking, significant improvements were found over both groups. Further significant time x group effects were found for positive affect during public speaking, with a significant increase in the social focus, and no significant change in the nonsocial-focus group.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that attention training to reduce self-focus can be successfully conducted in VR. Both training versions showed positive short-term effects in the highly socially anxious, with particular advantages of an external social focus concerning eye contact to the audience and positive affect. Further research should investigate whether social focus is even more advantageous long term and if reinterpretations of dysfunctional beliefs could be achieved by not avoiding social cues.

Dating With Social Anxiety: An Empirical Examination of Momentary Anxiety and Desire for Future Interaction

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Asher ◽  
Idan M. Aderka
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Small Talk ◽  
Interaction Partners ◽  
Opposite Sex

Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) have substantial difficulties in romantic relationships. The aim of the present study was to examine initial, opposite-sex interactions of individuals with SAD and their interaction partners. Specifically, we investigated gender and social context (small talk vs. closeness-generating conversations) and their effects on momentary social anxiety during the interaction, as well as on participants’ desire for future interaction. Participants in this study ( N = 160) formed 42 experimental dyads, each comprising one individual with SAD and another non–socially anxious (NSA) individual, and 38 control dyads of two NSA individuals. We found that men with SAD benefitted significantly from closeness-generating interactions such that levels of momentary social anxiety were greatly reduced and both members of the dyad reported increased desire for future interaction. This effect was not found in small-talk conversations and not found for women with SAD. Implications for psychopathology and treatment are discussed.

Out of Sync: Nonverbal Synchrony in Social Anxiety Disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-294
Author(s):  
Maya Asher ◽  
Amitay Kauffmann ◽  
Idan M. Aderka
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Negative Association ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Small Talk ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Nonverbal Synchrony

We examined nonverbal synchrony during opposite-sex interactions of individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Participants were 156 individuals: 38 diagnosed with SAD and 118 individuals who were not socially anxious (NSA). Participants formed 78 dyads of either 2 NSA individuals (control dyads; n = 40) or 1 individual with SAD and 1 NSA individual (SAD dyads; n = 38). Dyads were randomly assigned to either a closeness-generating conversation or a small-talk conversation, and nonverbal synchrony was derived from computer analysis of videos. We found that for control dyads, closeness-generating conversations led to increased nonverbal synchrony compared with small-talk conversations but did not find the same outcome in SAD dyads. We also found a positive association between social anxiety and nonverbal synchrony in small-talk conversations but a negative association in closeness-generating conversations. Thus, we found evidence for impaired nonverbal synchrony in SAD using objective measures. Implications for psychopathology and treatment are discussed.

Exposure and Cognitive Restructuring

2019 ◽  
pp. 129-136
Author(s):  
Debra A. Hope ◽  
Richard G. Heimberg ◽  
Cynthia L. Turk
Keyword(s):  
Small Groups ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Cognitive Restructuring ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Automatic Thoughts ◽  
Public Speaking Anxiety ◽  
Speaking Up ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Speaking Anxiety

Although this chapter focuses on public speaking fears, many similar issues arise for clients who fear being the center of attention or speaking up in large or small groups, such as meetings and classes. Research indicated that most socially anxious individuals fear public speaking, but not all desire treatment for the problem. Although such fears may be long standing, individuals with public speaking anxiety are often prompted to seek treatment by a new opportunity, such as a promotion at work or following what they perceive to be a failed public speaking experience. The largest difficulty in designing in-session exposures for individuals with fears about public speaking is being able to create the conditions that will evoke anxiety. Common automatic thoughts reported by individuals with public speaking fears usually center on the visibility of anxiety symptoms or concerns about the quality of one’s performance.

scholarly journals Are you Watching Me? Interacting Effects of Fear of Negative Evaluation and Social Context on Cognitive Performance

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin L. Maresh ◽  
Bethany A. Teachman ◽  
James A. Coan
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Fear Of Negative Evaluation ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Improved Accuracy

Socially anxious individuals exhibit cognitive performance impairments; it is unclear whether this is due to trait differences in abilities or effects of the experimental context. This study sought to determine how social context, individual differences in fear of negative evaluation (FNE), and task difficulty interact to influence working memory performance as indicated by effectiveness (accuracy) and efficiency (reaction times). Participants (N = 61) performed the n-back task at 2-back and 3-back difficulty levels under three conditions: alone (“Anonymous”), in presence of a non-evaluative experimenter (“Presence”), and under explicit performance evaluation by the experimenter (“Threat”). Overall, participants showed improved accuracy during Threat, but only on 2-back trials. FNE was positively associated with longer reaction times during Threat on 3-back trials. FNE did not relate to accuracy, suggesting that threat-related impairments tied to social anxiety may alter efficiency rather than effectiveness. Thus, social anxiety may elicit cognitive performance impairments even in minimally evaluative environments.

Disclosure of anxiety in everyday life: Effects of social anxiety

2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 438-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany A. Gee ◽  
Martin M. Antony ◽  
Naomi Koerner
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Everyday Life

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.

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for treating social anxiety in stuttering: A scoping review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Chard ◽  
Nejra van Zalk
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Exposure Therapy ◽  
Treatment Success ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Effective Technique ◽  
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Virtual Reality Exposure

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) has been shown to be an effective technique for reducing social anxiety. People who stutter are at greater risk of developing heightened social anxiety. Cognitive behavior therapy protocols have shown promise in reducing social anxiety in people who stutter, but no studies have investigated VRET targeting social anxiety associated with stuttering. The aim of the current review is to provide an overview of VRET techniques used to treat social anxiety and insights into how VRET might be adopted in the case of comorbid stuttering and social anxiety. Twelve studies were reviewed to understand key distinctions in VRET protocols used to treat social anxiety. Distinctions include exercises targeting public speaking vs. general social anxiety, computer-generated virtual environments vs. 360 video, and therapist guided vs. automated VRET. An overview of wider research questions surrounding VRET is then presented to aid the understanding of treatment success and outline important directions for future research. Based on the review findings, suggestions are made regarding VRET design for stuttering. In sum, VRET should be tailored to situations and cognitive-behavioral processes that underlie the experience of social anxiety amongst people who stutter, with automated VRET using a virtual therapist a potentially suitable format for delivering treatment.

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