Social anxiety in adolescence – application of the

Clark and Wells model (1995) to the case of

Bradley Marvin (Kearney, 1999)

Gabriela Del Mar Ortiz Vargas

s3440680

Assignment 1

Word count: 751

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Social anxiety in childhood and adolescence
Clark and Wells (1995) define social anxiety as a disorder characterized by
avoiding or enduring social situations with intense distress. Given that social phobics
avoid situations in which they might feel social anxiety, due to interaction with
unknown people or in unknown scenarios, they rarely get exposed to them, maintaining
their phobia without being able to recover and only contributing to the persistence of it
(Kearney, 1999).
Clark and Wells’ cognitive model depicts the trigger of social anxiety with a
social situation activating the assumption of a perceived social level when phobics
process themselves as a social object. The perceived danger activates certain somatic
and cognitive symptoms and drives the phobic to specific safety behaviors that
supposedly help deal with the anxiety. These safety behaviors are counteractive and not
beneficious, given that non-occurrence from an expected catastrophe is ascribed to the
behavior, instead of assuming it is not a dangerous situation.
12-year-old Bradley Marvin is a good example of social anxiety and depression
with withdrawal in adolescence. His school change and his dissatisfaction with his
mother's divorce and remarriage, as well as his bad relationship with his stepfather
contributed to his bad behavior, skipping school and drop in his grades. He had trouble
adjusting to his new school without any of his old friends, stopped playing with kids in
his neighborhood and rarely initiated contact with others. He was very shy and socially
anxious, shown by his lack of eye contact, soft speaking and apparent insecurity of
himself, overall, when giving oral presentations or having to perform in physical
education, which he hated as he claimed that other kids made fun of him.

Cognitive model applied to Bradley’s case

Bradley’s signs of social anxiety, despite being bad for at least two years since
his mother’s divorce and remarriage, seem to have worsened in the last three months.
Although he has a good relationship with his two sisters and his mother, he does not
seem to connect with his stepfather, whom he depicts as strict and physically aggressive.
Regardless of his desire to be homeschooled or put in a different middle school,
his mother and stepfather decided that therapy would be a better solution for his social
phobia, instead of promoting it by avoiding the situations that make him feel anxious.
One social situation that triggered Bradley’s anxiety, was giving oral
presentations in class. On every other academic aspect, he performed good, one can
apply Clark and Wells’ model to this example to better understand it.
The social situation of giving a presentation in a room full of classmates and a
teacher that was evaluating his performance enhanced- the assumption that he had to do
good triggered the perceived danger that he would make a fool of himself and other
would make fun of him or “snicker at him” (Kearney, 1999). This made Bradley process
himself as a social object, by which he became very self-aware and his internal
information made him interpret external social cues in an excessive negative fashion.
He got anxious, had trouble breathing and became trembly in his voice and hands.

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These count as somatic and cognitive symptoms, which originate due to hypervigilance
towards own observable behaviors. By noticing his own anxiety and the worry that
people would notice his anxiety, he increased the subjective intensity of his somatic
symptoms. These safety behaviors lead to the feared situation to occur instead of
avoiding it. By worrying he would look anxious, he ended up looking anxious.

Conclusion
A genetic factor contributing to vulnerability to stress and stress-evoking
situations may be part of the reason as to why Bradley is so sensitive when it comes to
interacting with new people. Given that his biological father is not in the picture and his
mother does not talk about her displaying symptoms of anxiety or a tendency for
general negative affect, one cannot be sure whether this could apply to Bradley’s case.
Another contributing factor may be that he has had past bad experiences with his
specific phobia (social anxiety), rather than it just being an irrational fear. The fact that
he thinks he performed “badly” (Kearney, 1999) and felt anxious makes him more
susceptible to feeling more anxious towards it the next time he has to hold a
presentation. Even though these factors are not included in Clark and Wells’ model
(1995), it shows how models are no more than generalizations and everybody’s
disorders can be displayed in a different way due to different reasons.

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References

Clark, D. M. (2001). A cognitive perspective on social phobia. In W.R. Crozier

and L.E. Alden (Eds.), International Handbook of Social Anxiety (pp. 405 – 418).
Wiley.
Kearney, C. A. (1999). Casebook in child behavior disorders. Melbourne:
Brooks/Cole Wadsworth