The Development of a Comprehensive Model of Social Anxiety and Anticipatory Social Appraisals

• Main Author: Johns, Lance
• Format: Others
• Published: CSUSB ScholarWorks 2017
• Subjects: Social Anxiety; Appraisals; Fear of Negative Evaluation; Fear of Positive Evaluation; Judgment Bias; Evolution; Clinical Psychology; Cognition and Perception
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/515; https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1592&context=etd

In anticipation of a future social interaction, socially anxious individuals (SAIs) may imagine themselves appearing stupid or foolish and predict and exaggerate the probability and costs of conveying these undesirable social images both on oneself (e.g., “I will feel stupid”) and on others impressions of oneself (e.g., “Others will think I’m stupid”). However, there is a paucity of research examining the latter bias; moreover, research regarding SAIs estimates of the probability and costs of conveying a positive impression (e.g., “I will feel smart”) has typically been neglected. Thus, the a novel questionnaire was created in order to develop a more comprehensive model of SAIs estimates of probability and costs. We expected that positive and negative, self- and other-related judgments will represent four distinct, latent constructs that will be related to trait social anxiety indirectly through fears of positive and negative evaluation per the evolutionary model of social anxiety. Structural equation modeling was used to test study hypotheses. The final sample included four hounded and seventy-four college students (307 males and 167 females). Results generally supported study hypotheses. After minor theoretically justified modifications, the hypothesized model provided good fit to the data, χ2(94) = 151.78, CFI = .99, TLI = .99, RMSEA = .04. All social appraisals (or judgments) with the exception of other-negative appraisals were indirectly related to social anxiety through fears of positive and negative evaluation. Contrary to expectations, other-positive appraisals were negatively related to fear of negative evaluation and other-negative appraisals were uncorrelated with fear of positive evaluation, providing partial incremental validity of the novel questionnaire used in this study. Results provide preliminary evidence that suggests future research should extend evaluation of SAIs anticipatory social appraisals beyond negative, self-related social impact. Implications, limitations, and future directions of the research are be discussed.