Symptom Accommodation Related to Social Anxiety Symptoms in Adults: Phenomenology, Correlates, and Impairment

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nayana Joogoolsingh ◽  
Monica S. Wu ◽  
Adam B. Lewin ◽  
Eric A. Storch
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Anxiety Sensitivity ◽  
Anxiety Symptom ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Fear Of Negative Evaluation ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
General Anxiety

Background and Objectives: Socially anxious individuals often engage in various safety and avoidant behaviors to temporarily decrease distress. Similarly, friends or family members may engage in accommodating behaviors, commonly manifesting through the facilitation of avoidance, completion of tasks, or schedule modifications. Studies examining symptom accommodation in adult social anxiety are lacking, so this study seeks to better understand symptom accommodation and its consequent impairment in socially anxious adults. Design and Methods: There were 380 undergraduate students who completed a battery of self-report questionnaires through an online system. Constructs assessed include social anxiety, symptom accommodation, and impairment as well as related variables such as general anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, alcohol use, and anxiety sensitivity. Results: Symptom accommodation was positively correlated with social anxiety symptoms, functional impairment, general anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, fear of negative evaluation, and alcohol use. Individuals with considerable social anxiety reported significantly higher levels of symptom accommodation than individuals who reported lower levels of social anxiety. Anxiety sensitivity predicted symptom accommodation beyond the contribution of social anxiety. Symptom accommodation mediated the relationship between social anxiety and impairment. Conclusions: These data help elucidate the presentation and impact of symptom accommodation related to social anxiety. Implications for assessment, treatment, and future directions are presented.

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.

scholarly journals Social anxiety in a multiple sclerosis clinic population

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Poder ◽  
K Ghatavi ◽  
JD Fisk ◽  
TL Campbell ◽  
S Kisely ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Research Unit ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Neurological Disability ◽  
General Anxiety ◽  
Neurologic Disability

Background Little is known about social anxiety in MS. Objective We estimated the prevalence of social anxiety symptoms and their association with demographic and clinical features in a clinic-attending sample of patients with MS. Methods Patients attending the Dalhousie MS Research Unit for regularly scheduled visits completed the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Health Utilities Index (HUI). Neurological disability was determined by ratings on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Results A total of 251 patients completed self-report scales of anxiety and depression symptoms. In all, 245 (98%) provided sufficient data for analysis. In all, 30.6% ( n = 75) had clinically significant social anxiety symptoms as defined by a SPIN threshold score of 19. Half of those with social anxiety had general anxiety (HADSA ≥ 11) and a quarter had depression (HADSD ≥ 11). Severity of social anxiety symptoms was associated with reduced health-related quality of life and not related to neurological disability. Conclusions Social anxiety symptoms are common in persons with MS, contribute to overall morbidity, but are unrelated to the overall severity of neurologic disability. Greater awareness and routine systematic inquiry of social anxiety symptoms is an important component of comprehensive care for persons with MS.

The Nature and Extent of Social Anxiety and Avoidance in Patients with Chronic Pain

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-72
Author(s):  
Renée F. Seebeck ◽  
Malcolm H. Johnson ◽  
Ross A. Flett
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Anxiety Sensitivity ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Fear Of Negative Evaluation ◽  
Social Avoidance ◽  
Social Distress ◽  
Chronic Pain Patients ◽  
Fear And Anxiety ◽  
Pain Patients

The present study explored the nature and extent of social anxiety and avoidance, anxiety sensitivity, and pain-related anxiety and avoidance in 46 clinic-referred chronic pain patients, compared with a community-based group reporting pain (n = 66) and healthy controls (n = 57). The chronic pain patients consistently reported higher levels of social distress, social avoidance, fear of negative evaluation, anxiety sensitivity, and pain-related anxiety and avoidance as compared with controls. Group differences in social distress, social avoidance, fear of negative evaluation, pain-related cognitive anxiety, and fear of cognitive and emotional dyscontrol, remained stable when pain severity was controlled for. Anxiety sensitivity was strongly related to both social and pain-related fears. The source of these social fears is examined in relation to the elevated pain-related fear and anxiety sensitivity also exhibited by chronic pain patients, and implications for treatment and rehabilitation are discussed.

Examining self-verification processes in social anxiety

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell P. A. Howarth ◽  
Miriam Forbes
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Negative Feedback ◽  
Positive Feedback ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Fear Of Negative Evaluation ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Negative Beliefs ◽  
Positive And Negative Feedback

AbstractSocially anxious individuals hold negative beliefs about their appearance, abilities and personality. These negative self-conceptions increase expectations of negative evaluation from others and, consequently increase anxiety. Self-verification theory states that individuals seek, accept and prefer feedback that is congruent with their self-conceptions. This study explored the assumptions of self-verification theory in social anxiety. This was achieved by examining the type of feedback socially anxious individuals seek and how positive and negative feedback is processed. Results from an undergraduate sample (n = 84) indicate that socially anxious individuals were no more or less likely to seek negative feedback than individuals with low social anxiety. However, participants with greater social anxiety rated positive feedback as less accurate, rated negative feedback as more accurate, and were more comfortable with negative feedback, compared to participants with low social anxiety. Greater social anxiety was also found to predict increased discomfort with positive feedback, and fear of negative evaluation fully mediated this relationship. These findings suggest that self-verification processes operate in social anxiety and highlight the need for researchers to include measures of fears of evaluation when examining self-verification theory in samples of socially anxious individuals.

Higher Social Anxiety Severity Predicts Better Cognitive Empathy Performance in Women but Not Men

2020 ◽  
pp. 003329412096549
Author(s):  
Samantha K. Berg ◽  
Jeffrey S. Bedwell ◽  
Robert D. Dvorak ◽  
Erin B. Tone
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Path Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Behavioral Measure ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
General Anxiety ◽  
Biological Sex ◽  
The Mind

Findings regarding relationships between social anxiety and subtypes of empathy have been mixed, and one study suggested that this may be due to moderation by biological sex. The present study examined whether accounting for general anxiety and biological sex clarifies these relationships. Undergraduates ( N = 701, 76% female) completed online self-report measures of cognitive and affective empathy, social and general anxiety severity, and a behavioral measure of cognitive empathy (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task; MIE). Path analysis examined relationships among social and general anxiety severity and affective and cognitive empathy. Model modification indices showed a significant influence of sex on the path from social anxiety severity to MIE accuracy. When the model was re-estimated with this path freed, more socially anxious women, but not men, showed greater MIE accuracy. Across both sexes, general anxiety severity related negatively to self-reported and behavioral (MIE) cognitive empathy. Affective empathy did not relate to either type of anxiety. The use of path analysis to simultaneously account for overlapping variance among measures of anxiety and empathy helps clarify earlier mixed findings on relationships between social anxiety and empathy subtypes.

scholarly journals Utilizing storytelling to promote emotional well-being of children with a distinct physical appearance: The case of children who wear eyeglasses

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Brouzos ◽  
Stephanos P. Vassilopoulos ◽  
Kalliopi Moschou
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Physical Appearance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Eye Diseases ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Group Activities ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Physical Traits

This study explored the effectiveness of storytelling in supporting children with unusual physical traits. Participants were forty-eight children, aged 9 – 12 who, due to various eye diseases, wear eyeglasses. They completed various standardized self-report measures, both before and after participation, in one of the six intervention groups. The measures assessed shyness and social anxiety symptoms, loneliness and social dissatisfaction, perception of negative evaluation, satisfaction with one’s appearance, and anxiety regarding physical appearance. The intervention consisted of six 90-min group sessions and included both individual and group activities. The results lend support to the hypothesis that storytelling can significantly contribute to the emotional well-being of children, with a distinct physical appearance.

scholarly journals Predicting Social Anxiety From Global Positioning System Traces of College Students: Feasibility Study

10.2196/10101 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. e10101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Boukhechba ◽  
Philip Chow ◽  
Karl Fua ◽  
Bethany A Teachman ◽  
Laura E Barnes
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Global Positioning System ◽  
Prediction Method ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Positioning System ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Global Positioning ◽  
Anxiety Levels

Background Social anxiety is highly prevalent among college students. Current methodologies for detecting symptoms are based on client self-report in traditional clinical settings. Self-report is subject to recall bias, while visiting a clinic requires a high level of motivation. Assessment methods that use passively collected data hold promise for detecting social anxiety symptoms and supplementing self-report measures. Continuously collected location data may provide a fine-grained and ecologically valid way to assess social anxiety in situ. Objective The objective of our study was to examine the feasibility of leveraging noninvasive mobile sensing technology to passively assess college students’ social anxiety levels. Specifically, we explored the different relationships between mobility and social anxiety to build a predictive model that assessed social anxiety from passively generated Global Positioning System (GPS) data. Methods We recruited 228 undergraduate participants from a Southeast American university. Social anxiety symptoms were assessed using self-report instruments at a baseline laboratory session. An app installed on participants’ personal mobile phones passively sensed data from the GPS sensor for 2 weeks. The proposed framework supports longitudinal, dynamic tracking of college students to evaluate the relationship between their social anxiety and movement patterns in the college campus environment. We first extracted the following mobility features: (1) cumulative staying time at each different location, (2) the distribution of visits over time, (3) the entropy of locations, and (4) the frequency of transitions between locations. Next, we studied the correlation between these features and participants’ social anxiety scores to enhance the understanding of how students’ social anxiety levels are associated with their mobility. Finally, we used a neural network-based prediction method to predict social anxiety symptoms from the extracted daily mobility features. Results Several mobility features correlated with social anxiety levels. Location entropy was negatively associated with social anxiety (during weekdays, r=−0.67; and during weekends, r=−0.51). More (vs less) socially anxious students were found to avoid public areas and engage in less leisure activities during evenings and weekends, choosing instead to spend more time at home after school (4 pm-12 am). Our prediction method based on extracted mobility features from GPS trajectories successfully classified participants as high or low socially anxious with an accuracy of 85% and predicted their social anxiety score (on a scale of 0-80) with a root-mean-square error of 7.06. Conclusions Results indicate that extracting and analyzing mobility features may help to reveal how social anxiety symptoms manifest in the daily lives of college students. Given the ubiquity of mobile phones in our society, understanding how to leverage passively sensed data has strong potential to address the growing needs for mental health monitoring and treatment.

scholarly journals Predicting Social Anxiety From Global Positioning System Traces of College Students: Feasibility Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Boukhechba ◽  
Philip Chow ◽  
Karl Fua ◽  
Bethany A Teachman ◽  
Laura E Barnes
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Global Positioning System ◽  
Prediction Method ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Positioning System ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Global Positioning ◽  
Anxiety Levels

BACKGROUND Social anxiety is highly prevalent among college students. Current methodologies for detecting symptoms are based on client self-report in traditional clinical settings. Self-report is subject to recall bias, while visiting a clinic requires a high level of motivation. Assessment methods that use passively collected data hold promise for detecting social anxiety symptoms and supplementing self-report measures. Continuously collected location data may provide a fine-grained and ecologically valid way to assess social anxiety in situ. OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to examine the feasibility of leveraging noninvasive mobile sensing technology to passively assess college students’ social anxiety levels. Specifically, we explored the different relationships between mobility and social anxiety to build a predictive model that assessed social anxiety from passively generated Global Positioning System (GPS) data. METHODS We recruited 228 undergraduate participants from a Southeast American university. Social anxiety symptoms were assessed using self-report instruments at a baseline laboratory session. An app installed on participants’ personal mobile phones passively sensed data from the GPS sensor for 2 weeks. The proposed framework supports longitudinal, dynamic tracking of college students to evaluate the relationship between their social anxiety and movement patterns in the college campus environment. We first extracted the following mobility features: (1) cumulative staying time at each different location, (2) the distribution of visits over time, (3) the entropy of locations, and (4) the frequency of transitions between locations. Next, we studied the correlation between these features and participants’ social anxiety scores to enhance the understanding of how students’ social anxiety levels are associated with their mobility. Finally, we used a neural network-based prediction method to predict social anxiety symptoms from the extracted daily mobility features. RESULTS Several mobility features correlated with social anxiety levels. Location entropy was negatively associated with social anxiety (during weekdays, r=−0.67; and during weekends, r=−0.51). More (vs less) socially anxious students were found to avoid public areas and engage in less leisure activities during evenings and weekends, choosing instead to spend more time at home after school (4 pm-12 am). Our prediction method based on extracted mobility features from GPS trajectories successfully classified participants as high or low socially anxious with an accuracy of 85% and predicted their social anxiety score (on a scale of 0-80) with a root-mean-square error of 7.06. CONCLUSIONS Results indicate that extracting and analyzing mobility features may help to reveal how social anxiety symptoms manifest in the daily lives of college students. Given the ubiquity of mobile phones in our society, understanding how to leverage passively sensed data has strong potential to address the growing needs for mental health monitoring and treatment.

scholarly journals Cognitive Risk Factors Predicting Social Anxiety among Indonesian Adolescents

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Salis Yuniardi
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Anxiety Sensitivity ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Fear Of Negative Evaluation ◽  
School Students ◽  
Cognitive Risk ◽  
Cognitive Risk Factors

Social anxiety is the third largest mental problem over the world, but no study has investigated cognitive risk factors predicting social anxiety among Indonesian adolescents. This study aimed to investigate the role of fear of negative evaluation, anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty in predicting their social anxiety. There were 162 senior high school students completed the paper and pencil questionnaire. Regression analyses was utilised in order to examine the relative contributions, being followed by moderation analyses in order to investigate any possible interaction among the risk factors examined. The result reveals that the contribution of fear of negative evaluation and anxiety sensitivity were significant, but the former was dominant. In addition, there was interaction between them where decreasing the effect of each other. Interestingly, intolerance of uncertainty did not contribute significantly to the model.

Social Anxiety, Fear of Negative Evaluation, and Distress in a Virtual Reality Environment

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Rannveig Sigurvinsdottir ◽  
Karen Soring ◽  
Karen Kristinsdottir ◽  
Sveinn Gunnar Halfdanarson ◽  
Kamilla R. Johannsdottir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Fear Of Negative Evaluation ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Virtual Reality Environment ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Treatment Target ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract According to cognitive theories of social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation (FNE) may be the mechanism whereby social anxiety induces distress. However, studying this can be challenging, as individuals with social anxiety may be reluctant to enter anxiety-provoking social situations, such as speaking in front of others. The present study used virtual reality (VR) to examine if giving a presentation in front of a virtual audience induced distress among undergraduate students and to test the hypothesis that FNE would mediate the relationship between social anxiety and distress. University students (N = 58, 70% female) entered a VR environment where they stood in front of a virtual audience and gave a short, impromptu presentation about their university. Participants also completed self-report measures of social anxiety, FNE, and distress (estimated before, during, and after VR). Distress and FNE had positive relationships with social anxiety and FNE fully mediated the relationship between social anxiety and distress. As far as we are aware, this is the first VR study to show this effect. The findings indicate that FNE could be a useful treatment target to reduce distress when presenting in front of an audience, either in VR or in person.

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