Social Anxiety

Social Anxiety Definition

Marked fear or anxiety about one or more
social situations in which an individual is exposed to possible scrutiny by others

Social Anxiety characteristics

Also known as "social phobia"
• Intense excessive fear
• Usually occur during childhood or adolescence
• Correlated with anxiety
• Have assumptions about certain social situations

Preparedness theory

people are biologically prepared to develop fears of things that were potentially dangerous to ancestors

Psychological causes/risk factors

Direct traumatic experience (direct conditioning)
Overactive amygdala
Negative outlook on social situations
Observation of other’s trauma (modeling and
vicarious conditioning)

Social/Environmental risk factors

Hearing or reading vivid accounts of traumatic social situations, or from movies, TV shows, books, social media, parenting and family environment, adverse life events (loss, violence, abuse, bullying) or Gender roles

Treatments

Systemic desensitization, graduated exposure, CBT, social skills training, and medications

Systemic desensitization

Gradually imagining social situations in a
hierarchy from the least frightening to the most
frightening for the individual
Very time consuming

Graduated exposure

Being gradually exposed to live social situations
that frighten them in the same type of hierarchy
as systemic desensitization and
Flooding – immediate exposure to most intense
feared stimulus instead of gradually introducing
them

CBT

Helps people to estimate danger more rationally
and realistically

Social skills training

Teaches clients to improve basic social skills
Can be in an individual or group setting

Medications

Mainly SSRIs that are typically paired with CBT
Not effective on its own