Social anxiety, shyness and embarrassment

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family of social anxieties
- embarrassment - shyness - social anxiety
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what does social anxiety do
- provides useful context for understanding these specific individual differences - helped psychologists understand effects of shyness and embarrassment for the individual
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Mattick and Clarke (1997): social interaction anxiety
- problems with interactions in social world - distress on meeting and talking to others - central fear us being inarticulate, sounding stupid
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Mattick and Clarke (1997): social phobia
- individual feels anxiety and fear at prospect of being observed by others - insecure in unknown company
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social phobia scale
- i get nervous that people are staring at me as i walk down the street - i worry i might do something to attract the attention of other people - i can feel conspicuous standing in a line
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Richards (2006)
- many professionals often misuse the term social phobia (confusion with agoraphobia) - social anxiety is not just being "phobic", individuals fear non-specific social events and situations
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social anxiety impacts:
- education - occupation - interpersonal relationships - social interaction problems - fear of social situations due to being judged negatively
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Hackleman & Schneler (1995)
- central aspect is fear of performing or "showing oneself up" in social situation (embarrassment, humiliation and shame) - anticipation is key - physical symptoms trigger vicious cycle
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when does anxiety start
typically in childhood or early adolescence - rare after 25 years
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appearance variations
- some report increasing shyness with age - other might relate to specific life events
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generalised social anxiety disorder
- wide range of social situations - likely to have persistent shyness through life
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non-generalised (performance) social anxiety disorder
- anxiety response is to certain identified situation - when performing in front of others
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avoidant personality disorder
- often considered most severe form of social anxiety - detached personality pattern - results in no close friends, avoiding activities - begins early and more common in males
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Markway and Markway (2003): symptoms can vary according to three categories:
1. cognitive symptoms 2. physical reactions 3. behavioural avoidance
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cognitive symptoms
how people with SAD might think: negative thoughts and doubts about themselves, search for affirmation
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physical reactions
- panic attacks, dizziness, shaking, short of breath, increased heart rate, tightness/pain in chest, numb, nausea - distinction between symptoms panic attacks
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behavioural avoidance
- fight or flight - leads to avoidance - extent of avoidance determined by severity of social anxiety - engage in other more subtle behaviours - avoidance reinforces anxiety
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possible causes of social anxiety disorder
- genetic and biological - developmental theory - chemical imbalance
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genetic and biological (Kagan, 1994/8)
syndrome: social anxiety may be an expression of genetically driven trait, social withdrawal, related to inhibited temperament in children, possible for child of 1/2 shy parents to inherit genes that amplify shyness into social anxiety
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Twin and family studies
female identical 30% heritability estimate for SAD, but examined other anxieties too
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developmental theory
- occurs in childhood - early traumatic/stressful life events associated with increased risk
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Bruch and Cheek (1995): proneness to social anxiety
- associated with different developmental stages - e.g. from 7 months stranger/separation anxiety, up to 6-8 years difficult being alone, older children solitude becomes important
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chemical imbalances
social anxiety associated with abnormalities in anxiety response system - imbalance of serotonin, noradrenaline, gamma - aminobutyric acid - important in emotional well-being
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shyness
- less severe than social anxiety - up to 50% of people report feeling chronically shy - consistent across countries
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shyness and physical/mental health
- self-consciousness, negative self-thoughts, affects verbal and non-verbal communication,
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Henderson and Zimbardo
- experience of discomfort and/or inhibition in interpersonal situations - discomfort has an effect on interpersonal or professional goals - excessive self-focus - pre-occupation with one's own thoughts, feelings and physical reactions
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1998, shyness can:
- be chronic and dispositional - be central to person's definition of their own identity - be situational - occur at any or all of levels: cognitive, affective, physiological, behavioural
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cognitive (thinking)
- fear of negative evaluation and looking foolish, negative thoughts of self and situation, worry and rumination, self-blaming attributes, believing self as weak others as strong, negative bias of self-concept, belief theres a right way of doing stuf
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affective
- embarrassment and self-consciousness - shame - low self-esteem - dejection and sadness - loneliness/depression - anxiety
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physiological
- physical similar to social anxiety - feeling unreal or detached from everything - fear of losing control, having panic attack, heart attack
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behavioural
- inhibition or passivity - averting gaze - avoidance of fearful situations - little body movement or over the top - speaking quietly - speech faults - nervous behaviour
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state shyness
- situational: immediate experience of shyness - experienced by everyone at some point - related to other social emotions
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trait shyness
- permanent tendency to experience shyness - stable personality trait (Russell et al., 1986)
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shyness and personality
- links between extroversion, intoversion and shyness
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Zimbardo (1977): shyness and introversion clearly distinguishable
- introverts do not fear social situations, but prefer their own company and solitary activities - shy people often prefer to be with others, but there are difficulties due to their shy nature
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Henderson and Zimbardo (1998)
- some extraverts are shy - shy extroverts are ok in structured familiar social situations, but not in new or one-to-one situations
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embarrassment
- social animals concerned with what others think
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what is embarrassment
self-conscious feeling individuals get after realising they have done something stupid, silly or dishonourable
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result from:
- things one has done - people one knows - things one doesn't know how to do - personal or biological drives - money issues
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Sabini et al (2000) three triggers:
- faux pas (social blunders) - sticky situations - being centre of attention
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theories
- much of literature sees it as symptom of social anxiety - individual differences researchers treat it as separate construct
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several embarrassment theories
- social evaluation model - situational self-esteem model - personal standards model
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social evaluation model
- concern for what others think drives embarrassment - failure to impress (Edelmann, 1987) - individual must be concerned about what others think of them in order to feel embarrassment - some think this is too simplistic
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situationa self-esteem model
-Negative self-evaluation set in motion further events which cause the embarrassment - Modigliani (1971): root cause is a temporary loss of self-esteem that results from public failures -negative self-evaluations do not cause embarrassment but trigge
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personal standards model
- when individual realises they have failed in standards of behaviour, they have to set for themselves - not the situation that is embarrassing - it's whether the individual's behaviours meets their standards
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commonalities
- Result in fear of unwanted social evaluations - social evaluation model - Affect self esteem - situational self esteem model - Result in feeling that one has let oneself down - personal standards model
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individual predictors of embarrassment: Kelly & Jones (1997)
- personality - vulnerability - anxiety and depression
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what does social anxiety do

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- provides useful context for understanding these specific individual differences - helped psychologists understand effects of shyness and embarrassment for the individual

Card 3

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Mattick and Clarke (1997): social interaction anxiety

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Card 4

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Mattick and Clarke (1997): social phobia

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Card 5

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social phobia scale

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