Social Phobia

Part of an applied social psychologists job is to find the roots of issues in society and find a solution. We learned about intervention and evaluation in the earlier lessons. This is done through research and real-life experiences. In clinical and counseling psychologists encounter many issues. Clients come in with issues seeking for a solution or a “cure”.  The issue that caught my attention that people face every day is social anxiety also known as social phobia. “As such, social anxiety is a type of emotional distress that can vary in intensity” (Schneider, Gruman, Coutts, 2012). In order to find the best way help people overcome this issue psychologists must understand why and how it occurs. “Identifying specific cognitive-social culprits involved in the onset and perpetuation of symptoms of social anxiety is important because their identification improve our theoretical understanding of how symptoms develop” (Schneider, Gruman, Coutts, 2012). Finally, after understanding the person’s social phobia psychologists must find the best approach to overcome the disorder.

“Social Phobia is defined as a marked and persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or possible scrutiny by others” (Schneider, Gruman, Coutts, 2012). Understanding how people develop this is key to finding the treatment. As mentioned earlier identifying these cognitive symptoms from the person is vital in understanding their situation. This also works for the prevention of these disorders. It is very important for these practitioners to understand the general symptoms of social phobia. This way they are able to put in place an intervention to prevent this from happening. Leary and Kowalski action developed a theory called self-presentation theory. It uses the same cognitive-social culprits to create a blueprint of the origin of this disorder. It also lays out how maintain living with the disorder and finally the treatment (Schneider, Gruman, Coutts, 2012).

According to self-presentation theory, “a person experiences social anxiety only if two cognitive-social conditions are present simultaneously; the person must really want to make a particular impression, and doubt his or her ability to succeed” (Schneider, Gruman, Coutts, 2012). My cousin has social phobia and after reading about this in class it helps me better understand his situation. As humans in social settings we are always looking to make an impression on someone. Essentially, we are looking to have someone perceive us the way we would like. Most of us do not want to be put in embarrassing situations. We look to stay away from feeling of embarrassment. My cousin fails to stay out of embarrassing or awkward situations because both of these cognitive-social symptom are present. He lacks confidence in social situations. He has doubt in his personal ability. With the use of SPT, I can see that realize many of my cousin’s experiences have been negative ones mixed with both those cognitive-social factors present this results in social anxiety.

Treatment to social anxiety is reviewed in the book. I do not know what type of treatment my cousin undergoes as we do not speak as frequently as we use to. SPT is used to understand if the social-cognitive factors are present. If present, an approach to treating social anxiety is treating the two factors. “Interventions should seek to modify social self-efficacy, and self-presentational motivation” (Schneider, Gruman, Coutts, 2012). In essence, practitioners must look to find ways to boost the self-confidence of the individual. By boosting self-confidence this will improve the way the individual feels. Confidence is also the ability to not care what others think of you. Practitioners focus on building confidence and helping the individual understand it is not important what others think. Practitioners may go through social skill therapies to develop the client’s sense of self-efficacy.

Social phobia is a disorder that affects many. It debilitates an individual from living every day and performing in social settings. It can be a crushing feeling as it can completely destroy self-confidence and create an anxiety during social activities. This can even cause the individual to seclude himself from social environments in severe cases.

 

References:

Schneider, F., Gruman, J., Coutts, L. (2012) Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Leave a Reply


Skip to toolbar