Westminster Choir College of Rider University

Social Anxiety Disorder

Alexander Garcia

PSY 100-01

Dr. Rice

6 May 2017
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Social Anxiety Disorder, otherwise known as SAD, is essentially a chronic mental health

condition in which social interactions cause irrational anxiety. This can be diagnosed by an

individual with fear/anxiety about social situations in which they feel as if they are vulnerable to

possible criticism by others (Black and Grant). Some examples occur during social interactions,

while being observed, and also while performing in front of others. SAD can also occur in

children when they are presented in front of fellow peers. The individual is concerned that he or

she will be judged as anxious, weak, crazy, stupid, boring, intimidating, dirty, or unlikable

(Black and Grant). Depending on the situation the adult or child may feel as if they are being

judged on multiple occasions. The effects of SAD can carry on through the individuals daily life

as they grow older. Individuals with SAD will most likely live on their own, delay marriage,

seeking employment that doesn't involve social interaction, and minimal participation in

conversations.

For the past 13 or more years, SAD has typically developed in individuals between the

ages of 8 and 15 (Black and Grant). This is mainly due to a childhood history of being shy or

excluded from social interaction which carries on through adulthood. There are multiple

approaches to treating social anxiety disorder, however, some are proven to be less successful

than others. These interventions typically include education about anxiety and emotions,

emotional regulation strategies such as relaxation, identification, and modification of

maladaptive thoughts (Spence and Ronald). The interventions explained do not sufficiently

focus on the behavioral components involved in the development of SAD. There is also the

traditional cognitive behavioral therapy for overall anxiety in children and adults that focus on

addressing a range of factors that attribute to the development of anxiety disorders. However,
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approaches for children that aim to teach social skills and reduce victimization are able to assist

children in identifying and confronting negative beliefs which reduces biased processes relating

to the expectations. For instance, an intervention that taught children with SAD to use positive

interpretations of social threat occurrences instead of negative interpretations proved that the

children were able to reduce their negative bias (Spence and Ronald). Many of the treatment

processes are designed for children with SAD to ensure that the disorder does not progress

further into adulthood.

Temperament is basically a gateway for genetic factors that influence the development of

mental health issues such as SAD (Spence and Ronald). Additionally, behavioral inhibition is a

derivative of temperament which has played a large role in the development of SAD according to

Spence and Ronald. Children that result high in behavioral inhibition reveal several characteristic

behaviors such as limited eye contact, maintained proximity to safety figures, and avoidance of

possible threats. The characteristics are key factors for social anxiety disorder. For example,

individuals with a history of insecure attachment between 14 and 24 months were issued with a

consistent pattern of behavioral inhibition which resulted in social anxiety during adulthood

(Spence and Ronald). Coincidentally, the development of SAD can also be attributed to genetic

transmission (Scaini, Belotti, and Ogliari). Studies have revealed that parents with SAD are able

to pass on higher rates of SAD than individuals without. It is also inferred that individuals that

are genetically predisposed to SAD may be more vulnerable to certain environmental situations.

Therefore, individuals with SAD that decide to have a child are able to influence their children in

different ways, such as, transmitting genetic predisposition, preventing their child from engaging

in social events, and displaying their anxiety through modeling (Scaini, Belotti, and Ogliari). In
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this instance, the concept of nature and nurture can be applied to social anxiety disorder (Rutter).

Various environmental influences towards a child at a young age can be associated with SAD as

well as separation anxiety. However, this can be attributed differently towards siblings within the

same family. Family-wide influences that impinge differentially on siblings will bring about

nonshared effects despite being family-wide (Rutter). While being brought up in the same

family, negativity in the same household could affect only one sibling as opposed to both or

more. Based off of the nature of the family one may be immune to the negativity while the

other develops a fear of social interaction because they believe that they do not have the

opportunity to speak their mind and be accepted.

When it comes to psychological outcomes for individuals with SAD, they typically

respond differently to situations than others without. In the Weisman, Rodebaugh, Lim, and

Fernandez experiment, they conducted a series of interviews with a generalized social anxiety

disorder, GSAD, and a no social anxiety disorder group, NOSAD. Overall, the experiment was

to determine whether or not individuals with SAD would respond differently when asked the

same questions as correspondents without SAD. Specifically, the GSAD group showed

significantly higher scores than the NOSAD group on scales reflecting difficulty focusing on

other things when upset and nonacceptance of emotional responses, both of which are considered

maladaptive strategies for modulating ones emotions (Weisman et al.). They ultimately found

that the participants with SAD scored higher than the ones without regarding difficulty focusing

after the participants' emotions were already sparked. This shows that not only does SAD affect

daily life but it also affects and individuals personality and focus in a given situation. Freidlin,

Littman-Ovadia, and Niemiec suggested that through positive psychology lies character strengths
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that can contribute to various disorders including SAD. The underuse and overuse of character

strengths can bring forth either positive or negative outcome. Underuse of character strengths

brought out more negative outcomes than did overuse. Overuse of character strengths essentially

brings the best qualities of an individual forward although there were a few negative outcomes.

In terms of social anxiety disorder, the overuse and underuse of social intelligence was found to

be associated with social anxiety which represents individuals with SAD over-awareness and

unawareness (Freidlin et al.). Since SAD mainly deals with the irrational anxiety of social

interaction it is quite apparent that the individuals with SAD exhibit weaker social skills and

social intelligence that is typically underused or overused. Also, the underuse of self-regulation

was prominent in individuals with SAD suggesting the fact that low emotional control is one of

the main processes for SAD. Although the interviews were conducted with mainly adults,

children suffer the most as a result of social anxiety. Compared to adults, adolescents are far

more concerned about peer feedback and respond more negatively to peer exclusion (Hallen et

al.). The idea that an individual has to please others and be perfect is attributed to social

anxiety in children. At an early age, their conscience develops a belief that they have to appease

everyone else around them in order to avoid social negativity.

Social performance situation outcomes can be learned and evaluated by individuals with

SAD in a given circumstance. In 2015, an experiment conducted by Askew, Hagel, and Morgan

utilized similar animated movies that resulted in different outcomes. One movie resulted in a

negative outcome while the other film resulted in a neutral outcome. When watching the cartoon

character in a social performance situation the participants in the experiment, ranging from 8 to

11 years old, ultimately experienced intellectual processing about various performance situations
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(Askew, Hagel, and Morgan). The overall processing carried over into social performance

anxiety related words such as, audience, criticize, and clumsy, as opposed to words that did not

relate to anxiety, as in basket, court, and game. In other words, specific situations in which the

result of social performance is negative results in the fear of coming face to face with the exact

situation or one similar to it. The individuals who observed the negative outcome gained the fear

of participating in a situation similar to the one in the movie which contributes to social anxiety

disorder (Askew, Hagel, and Morgan). Showing examples of negative social performance

situations at a young age can definitely contribute to long-term complications regarding SAD. In

relation to this, models have revealed that individuals with SAD tend to devote greater

attentional resources when determining social threats in an environment (Evans, Walukevich,

and Britton). In order for individuals to feel at ease in any given situation, they unconsciously go

out of their way to determine whether or not a situation is safe for them. Due to experiencing

greater levels of social fear, individuals who are vigilant towards social threat may be more

likely to employ maladaptive coping strategies such as cognitive distraction that maintain

chronic levels of fear (Evans, Walukevich, and Britton). This overall affects the individuals'

behavior as they tend to find other means of getting out of difficult situations in order to maintain

their self-awareness and overall social fear. Similarly, in 2016, Khdour et al. conducted an

experiment that utilized a computer-based program with four images and the participant had to

determine which category to place it in. If the answer was correct then they would receive

positive feedback and no feedback at all if they were incorrect and vice versa. SAD and GAD

patients utilized avoidance learning as a coping mechanism to reduce exposure to negative

feedback and thereby counteract anxiety (Khdour et al.). Participants were able to assess how to
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determine the correct answer and avoid receiving negative feedback. By understanding how the

computer program worked, they were able to learn what was correct/incorrect and create a

coping mechanism to defeat their anxiety similar to Evans, Walukevich, and Brittons

experiment.

Social anxiety disorder can be portrayed across a wide spectrum. There are many ways to

diagnose and assess the disorder, whether it be through defining a treatment process, to

determining the link between genetics, or even figuring out how learning can contribute to SAD.

Many individuals today suffer from SAD on a daily basis as well as many other disorders.

Finding a valuable treatment process and conducting further experiments for various disorders

will help determine a possible cure/suitable outcome for the individual.

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Work Cited:

Askew, Chris, Anna Hagel, and Julie Morgan. "Vicarious Learning of Childrens

Social-anxiety-related Fear Beliefs and Emotional Stroop Bias." Emotion 15.4 (2015):

501-10. Web. 5 May 2017.

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Black, Donald W., and Jon E. Grant. DSM-5 TM Guidebook the Essential Companion to

the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition.

Washington, DC: American Psychiatric, 2014. Print.

Evans, Travis C., Katherine A. Walukevich, and Jennifer C. Britton.

"Vigilance-avoidance and Disengagement Are Differentially Associated with Fear and

Avoidant Behaviors in Social Anxiety." Journal of Affective Disorders 199 (2016):

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Freidlin, Pavel, Hadassah Littman-Ovadia, and Ryan M. Niemiec. "Positive

Psychopathology: Social Anxiety via Character Strengths Underuse and

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Anxiety Disorder in Adolescence: How Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

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Gluck, Mohammad M. Herzallah, and Ahmed A. Moustafa. "Generalized Anxiety

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Spence, Susan H., and Ronald M. Rapee. "The Etiology of Social Anxiety Disorder: An

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