APPENDIX D

Handout 4
Daily Record of
Social Situations
(DRSS)

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO COMPLETE THE

DAILY RECORD OF SOCIAL SITUATIONS (DRSS)

1. Don’t avoid situations. Go at least five times per week into a

fearful situation that you previously avoided.
2. On the Daily Record of Social Situations, describe the fear-
ful situation (second column) and record the date and time
(first column).
3. Rate your anticipatory anxiety and specify what signs of anxi-
ety you expect to experience (third column).
4. How bad do you think it would be if the situation did not go
well on a scale from 0 (not bad at all) to 10 (very bad)? Also,
please specify what “not going well” exactly means in this con-
text (fourth column).
5. How much could you cope with the bad outcome, and what
are the ways you could cope with it (fifth column)?
6. What is the likelihood that this bad outcome will in fact hap-
pen on a scale from 0% (not likely at all) to 100% (very likely;
sixth column)?

Remember: An ideal exposure task is a situation that induces a lot of

anxiety for a long period of time. The more often you do it and the longer
you stay in it, the better it is.

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