Social anxiety is a term used to describe an experience of anxiety (emotional discomfort, fear, apprehension, or worry) regarding social situations, interactions with others and being evaluated or scrutinized by other people. It occurs early in childhood as a normal part of the development of social functioning, but may go unnoticed until adolescence . People vary in how often they experience social anxiety or in which kinds of situations. It can be related to shyness or other emotional or temperamental factors, but its exact nature is still the subject of research and theory.
A psychopathological form of social anxiety is called social phobia or social anxiety disorder. This disorder can result in a reduced quality of life for those having it. Social anxiety can be self-integrated and persistent for people who suffer from OCD, which can make the social anxiety even harder to control, especially if ignored.
Some use the terms "social anxiety" and "social phobia" interchangeably.
Forms and degrees
Child development
Social anxiety first occurs in infancy and is said to be a normal and necessary emotion for effective social functioning and developmental growth. Cognitive advances and increased pressures in late childhood and early adolescence result in social anxiety being experienced repeatedly. Adolescents have identified their most common anxieties as focused on relationships with peers that they are attracted to, peer rejection, public speaking, blushing, self-consciousness, and past behavior. Most adolescents progress through their fears and meet the developmental demands placed on them.
Ordinary adult form
Adult forms of social anxiety include shyness, performance anxiety, public speaking anxiety, stage fright, timidness, etc. All of these may also assume clinical forms, i.e., become anxiety disorders (see below).
The term social anxiety is also commonly used in reference to experiences such as embarrassment and shame. However some psychologists draw distinctions among various types of social discomfort, with the criterion for anxiety being anticipation. For example, the anticipation of an embarrassment is a form of social anxiety, while embarrassment itself is not.
Criteria that distinguish clinical versus nonclinical forms of social anxiety include intensity and levels of behavioral and psychosomatic disruption. Social anxieties may also be classified according to the broadness of triggering social situations. For example, fear of eating in public has a very narrow situational scope (eating in public), while shyness may have a wide scope (a person may be shy of doing many things in various circumstances). The clinical (disorder) forms are also divided into general social phobia (i.e., social anxiety disorder) and specific social phobia.
Social anxiety as a disorder
Main articles: social anxiety disorder and specific social phobiaExtreme, persistent and disabling social anxiety may be diagnosed as social anxiety disorder. The experience is commonly described as having physiological components (e.g., sweating, blushing), cognitive/perceptual components (e.g. belief that one may be judged negatively; looking for signs of disapproval) and behavioral components (e.g. avoiding a situation).
The essence of social anxiety has been said to be an expectation of negative evaluation by others. One theory is that social anxiety occurs when there is motivation to make a desired impression along with doubt about having the ability to do so. Although the "official" clinical name for the disorder, as listed in the DSM and ICD, is Social Phobia or Social Anxiety Disorder, support groups for people who have the disorder (whether through clinical diagnosis or self-diagnosis) often refer to it as simply "social anxiety" or even "SA".
Criteria in the DSM and ICD attempt to distinguish clinical versus nonclinical forms of social anxiety, including by intensity and levels of behavioral and psychosomatic disruption. The validity of the "disorder" diagnosis has been challenged, however, on scientific and political grounds; people satisfying DSM social phobia criteria may simply be temperamentally high in social anxiety rather than suffering from a disorder, although such problems in living in society may still deserve attention as a matter of social justice.
Clinicians and researchers continue to struggle with definitional problems regarding the constructs of shyness, social anxiety and social phobia (social anxiety disorder). Each shares similarities, yet each has been used to define distinct aspects of psychological life as it relates to interpersonal functioning.
See also
- Major depressive disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Social rejection
External links
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- Social Anxiety at the Open Directory Project
- Anxiety Disorders Association of America - Help for people with anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder
- Social Anxiety Anonymous / Social Phobics Anonymous - International network of 12 Step support groups for people suffering from shyness problems and/or social anxiety disorder/social phobia
- Lynn Henderson and Philip Zimbardo: "Shyness". Entry in Encyclopedia of Mental Health , Academic Press, San Diego, CA (in press)
- Don't Call Me Shy: Help For Parents of Shy Children
- Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS-SR)+
- SHY United - Information and support site with articles and community forums / chat room
- How to Get Rid of Shyness - Help to Overcome Shyness and Social Anxiety
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Harold Leitenberg (1990) "Handbook of Social and Evaluation Anxiety", ISBN 0306434385
- ^ a b Albano, A.M. & Detweiler, M.F. (2001) The Developmental and Clinical Impract of Social Anxiety and Social Phobia in Children and Adolescents. In Hofmann, S.G. and DiBartolo, P.M. (eds). From Social Anxiety to Social Phobia: Multiple Perspectives. Allyn & Bacon.
- ^ a b Social Anxiety Support , What is Social Anxiety? 2007.
- ^ a b Thomas A. Richards, Ph.D., Director, Social Anxiety Institute , Why We Prefer the Term Social Anxiety to Social Phobia 2003.
- ^ Adelman, L. (2007). Don't Call me Shy , LangMarc Publishing
- ^ W. Ray Crozier (1990) "Shyness and Embarrassment: Perspectives from Social Psychology", ISBN 052135529X, p. 62
- ^ Leary, M. (2001). Social Anxiety as an Early Warning System: A Refinement and Extension of the Self-Presentation Theory of Social Anxiety. In Hofmann, S.G. and DiBartolo, P.M. (eds). From social anxiety to social phobic: multiple perspectives. Allyn & Bacon.
- ^ Wakefield, J.C., Horwitz, A.V., Schmitz, M.F. (2004) Are We Overpathologizing the Socially Anxious? Social Phobia From a Harmful Dysfunction Perspective. Can J Psychiatry 49:736-742.
- ^ Henderson, L., Zimbardo, P. (2001). Shyness, Social Anxiety, Social Phobia. In Hofmann, S.G. and DiBartolo, P.M. (eds). From Social Anxiety to Social Phobia: Multiple Perspectives. Allyn &
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