social anxieties Flashcards
(20 cards)
Social Anxiety
DSM 5- released in may 2013
criteria:
—may exhibit significant or persistent fear of social situations — where embarrassment or rejection may occur
—experience immediate anxiety driven physical reactions to feared social situations
—recognise feears but feel powerless to overcome them
—avoided dreaded social situtions
Avoidant personality disorder
Mcneil 2001
— considered most severe form of social anxiety
—marked by a detached personality pattern where individual avoids people due to fear of humiliation or rejection
typical behaviours:
-reluctance to engage with others
-lack of close friendships
-exageration of potential contact
—avoidance of activities requiring interpersonal contact
-more common in males— often starting early childhood
3 main characteristics of symptoms
Cognitive Symptoms
—prone to negative self talk— do i look okay— what if others dont like me
—focus on fear of rejection or disproval
Consequences:
—Low self esteem
—Deep feelings of inferiority
Physical symptoms
—panic attacks
—shortness of breath
—tightness or pains in chest
—racing heart
—nausea, dizziness, sweating and shaking
Distinguishing difference between panic disorder/ social anxiety disorder
—Panic disorder, fear centres around the panic attack itself
—social anxiety, fear centres on others witnessing the attack— resulting in humiliation from that
Behavioural avoidance in social anxiety
Tendency to avoid situations we percieve as harmful
—parties, relationships, high potential jobs— scared of making fool of urself. jobs having to meet new people
—Limiting life choices— remaining in comfort zones
therefore engaging in subtle avoidance behaviours:
—drinking alcohol before social events
—setting limitations for social interactions— leaving party after an hour
Biological and Developmental influences
Kagan 1994 1998
Clinical perspective
—Studied babies around social anxiety disorder
—explored inhibitions / inhibited temperaments amongst children
—found 10-15% of babies identified as irritable— often develop shyness and fearfulness
—children remain cautious, quiet and introverted throughout development
—most children who show at early age— have higher rates of social anxiety disorder in adolescence
Kagan 199/1998 continued
When Kagan looked at these children he found
Biological indicators
—higher than normal resting heart rate— which increases under mild stress
—behavioural restraints in new situations— avoiding them, and retreating
Genetic Influence
—High prevalence of social anxiety or related disorder in parents
—suggests a genetically driven trait of social withdrawal— linked to inhibited temperament
Shyness
Cognitive argument
Henderson and zimbardo— define shyness as discomfort or inhibition in interpersonal situations- interactions with other people
—discomfort impacts interpersonal relationships or professional goals
Key characteristic
—shyness form of excessive self-focus— pre occupation with ones own thoughts, feelings and physical reactions
Symptoms and consqeuences
Physiology— accelerated heartrate/ faintness/shaking/sweating
Affect— embarrassment / depression anxiety
Cognitive— negative thoughts
behaviours- gaze aversion/ low speaking voice
Symptoms and consequences of shyness
Trait shyness— long lasting or permanent tendency to experience heightened self consciousness in various situations
—stable personality trait persisting over time
-avoidance
State shyness— to some extent there are certain circumstances that occur that trigger shyness
—meeting new people, someone u like etc
Biological/ decelopmental roots of trait shynessg
Major sources of trait shyness
—Inhibition and excsessive anxiety
shyness— developmental factors— issues forming a personality identityy during events in adolescence
emergence of social-cognitive appraisals in shynessBus
Buss
Fearful shyness
—develops early in life— linked to behavioural inhibition
—may or may not influence behaviour
Self conscious shyness
—emerges later, as children develop theory of mind
—involves self evaluation and concern about negative impressions
—develops from ability to reflect on behaviour from others perspectives
Shyness/ personality— not just introverted traits
Some may argue that shyness just another part of personality trait
—introverts dont fear social company— just like to be on their own
Zimbardo— investigated shyness alongside the personality traits of extraversion— sociable/ talkative and introversion
—found that introversion and shyness are clearly distinguishable from eachother
—introvertts do not fear social situations— simply just prefer their own company/ solarity activities
—whereas shy individuals would prefer to be with others— but restrained because of shy natures
Shyness/ personality
—Zimbardo also found that although we consider extraverts to not be shy— some extraverts are in fact considered shy
—shy extraverts— privately be shy and publicly outgoing
—zimbardo and henderson argue that shy-extraverts may be shy
—but adopted social skills to carry them through siutations through situations that are structured or familiar to them
—learn rules
—shows that people are able to think through social anxieties— not just this predisposition or clinical temparament
—element of how we can overcome it
Embarrassment— social perspectives
Defintion— a self conscious feeling experienced after realising one had done something percieved as stupid, ridiculous or dishonourable
—feeling embarrassed— can cause phsyiological reactions— from blushing to severe embarrassment
—traditionaly— viewed as something that has been viewed as something that lives inside things like society anxiety and shyness
—work been done that now recognises it as an independent construct with specific causes and consequences
—core argument— embarrassment is deeply rooted in social processes
4 theories
4 separate models— peole talk about different things— but we think if we put them all together— shows a process that this kind of social anxiety is a social process
- The dramaturgic model
—key idea— get embarrassed from the inability to maintain public performance
process:
trigger— poor public performance (walking into lampost)— leads to flustered reaction/ uncertainty
result— agitation and aversive arousal when individual realises they cannot continue gracefully
core insight— embarrassment stems from failure to act a part in the social context — the ahhh response from walking into lampost
Social evaluation model
Could argue that— thats not what causes embarrasment
Idea— embarrassment driven by concern for how others percieve us
saying something stupid/ walking into lampost— not so much weve done that but its did anybody see or hear us
failing to impress others leads to embrassment
social evaluation of others that causes embarssment
Situational self esteem
Idea that embarrassment arises from a temporary loss of self esteem due to public failure
process— negative evaluations by others act as a trigger
—the individual uses the situation to judge their own performance, leading to embarrassment
if u care about doing somrthing stupid- its not so much others judge you- its more how u feel about it— do u actually care what others think— causes loss of self esteem
insight— embarassment is caused by how individuals evaluate their own performance- not solely by others opinions
—if they didnt care about how others percieved them then they wouldnt care
Personal standards model
Idea— that may not care about others evaluation of you— but may say that embarrasment occurs when individuals fail to meet their own behvioural standards
—might say that yeah i shouldnt be saying stupid things/ walked into lampost- why did i do that
— process— embarrassment comes from you engaging in your own personal stahdards of who you are which is the key thing embarssment— failed to meet your own standards as a person
-embarrasment may occur even when alone— looking back and thinking i shoukdnt have done that, if behaviour falls short of self-imposed expectations
—not the situation itself but the failure to meet personal standards
—sticks with you because its failure of what you wanted/ expected yourself to be
Embrrasment
Idea that it is a social process.
four acts of social process
