Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2004. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-126). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

abstract: The purpose of this thesis study was to evaluate the nature of social anxiety in clinic-referred African American children versus their Caucasian counterparts. In particular, social anxiety symptom endorsement along the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory Scale for Children (SPAI-C; Beidel, Turner, & Morris, 1995) was examined in a sample of 107 African American and 364 Caucasian children (ages 7- to 17-years old) referred for anxiety. To evaluate symptom endorsement, simple descriptive analyses were conducted whereas measurement invariance tests were examined using confirmatory factor analyses. For the most commonly endorsed items, African American and Caucasian children shared seven of the top 10 most commonly identified social anxiety symptoms. Similar social fears across ethnicity focused on "assertiveness in situations perceived to be difficult" and ""speaking to large groups of peers they do not know." Findings also showed that African American children were more likely to report symptoms of "shaking when in social situations" than Caucasian children, and Caucasian children were more likely to report symptoms of "embarrassment when in front of adults" compared to African American children, but this was also on the basis of two items. When it came to the five factors of the SPAI-C, results showed measurement invariance across African American and Caucasian children. Overall, there were more similarities than differences between African American and Caucasian children in social anxiety symptoms based on the SPAI-C. Findings from this thesis study shed light on how to best accurately identify social anxiety among African American children compared to Caucasians, a contribution that can potentially impact assessment, treatment planning, and program response evaluation. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2013

Die Brief Social Phobia Scale – German version (BSPS-G) ist ein Kurzinterview zum Screening sozialer Ängste. Dabei werden Schwere oder Verlauf einer bereits diagnostizierten sozialen Angststörung erfasst. Im Folgenden wird der Hintergrund dargelegt und eine Kurzbeschreibung des englischsprachigen Originals (BSPS) gegeben: Die soziale Phobie ist gekennzeichnet durch ausgeprägte und anhaltende Angst, sich in sozialen oder Leistungssituationen peinlich zu verhalten, gedemütigt zu werden oder bestimmte Körpersymptome zu zeigen (Diagnostisches und Statistisches Manual psychischer Störungen, DSM-IV-TR [Saß et al., 2003]). Die Prävalenzraten liegen zwischen 6,7% [Fehm et al., 2005] und 12,1% [Kessler et al., 2005] und bei bis zu 25% für subklinische Ängste, die in Schwere und Beeinträchtigung häufig dem Vollbild ähnlich sind [Beesdo et al., 2007; Knappe et al., 2009]. Zur diagnostischen Erfassung der sozialen Phobie liegen zahlreiche Selbsteinschätzungsverfahren vor, aber kaum Fremdbeurteilungsverfahren [Mitte et al., 2007]. Als Interviewverfahren hat sich die Liebowitz Skala (Liebowitz Soziale Angst Skala, LSAS) [Stangier und Heidenreich, 2005] etabliert. Die BSPS hat demgegenüber die Vorteile, dass sie viel ökonomischer ist und explizit typische Körpersymptome erfasst, die soziale Ängste sowohl begleiten als auch auslösen können. Die Validierung der englischsprachigen Originalversion der BSPS zeigte sehr gute Kennwerte für die Test-Retest-Reliabilität (rtt = 0,91) und die interne Konsistenz (Cronbachs α = 0,82) sowie gute konvergente und diskriminante Validität und Änderungssensitivität. Als Cut-Off-Wert wurde ein Summenwert von 20 Punkten bestimmt [Davidson et al., 1997]. / Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / The main objective of the study was to adapt the Implicit Association Task (IAT) to asses implicit self-relevant fear associations in individuals suffering from social phobia and panic disorder. This involved the development of computerbased word stimuli classification tasks in which participants were expected to classify individually presented words belonging to one of four word categories, namely self-related ‘me’ words, other-related ‘not-me’ words, threat-related words (physical or social threat) and corresponding safety-related words. Two response keys on the computer were to be used, each representing two word categories during a specific trial (e.g., the one representing ‘me’ and ‘threat’, and the other ‘not-me’ and ‘safety’ words). The demanded task was to classify the presented words as quickly and accurately as possible. This resulted in the construction of the Physical Threat Implicit Association Task (PIAT) and the Social Threat Implicit Association Task (SIAT). Both IAT versions were administered to a group of 17 participants diagnosed with social phobia, 17 diagnosed with panic disorder, and 17 ‘normal’ controls. Fear-domain specific self-threat association biases were expected for the social phobics on the SIAT, for the panickers on the PIAT, as well as significant differences with the performances of the control group on the IAT tasks. A secondary objective of the study was to investigate the relationships between the IATs and performances on a variety of self-report scales, namely the Social Phobia Inventory, the Panic Disorder Severity Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. In contrast to what was expected, the results of both the PIAT and SIAT did not demonstrate a facilitation of the classification task during trials when ‘me’ and ‘threat’ words were allocated to one category (i.e., response key), and ‘notme’ and ‘safety’ to the other. On the contrary, all three participant groups demonstrated significant effects in the opposite direction. Furthermore, the differences between the groups on both IATs were insignificant. With the exception of a significant, negative correlation between the results on the SIAT and the Social Phobia Inventory for the social phobia group, all the other IAT and self-report scale correlations were insignificant. The results were explained in terms of a newly proposed ‘two-forces’ cognitive theory. It was speculated that the IAT effects might have been the result of two opposing forces operating at different stages of the information processing system. This is namely (a) a disruption of performance by attention diversion during an early pre-attentive stage of processing, versus (b) a facilitation of the classification task by implicit association during later elaborative stages of processing, with the former apparently making the major contribution to the final IAT effect. This may be a phenomenon unique to anxiety disorders. The implications for future research of the findings and the newly proposed theory were also discussed.

<p>Kognitiv beteendeterapi (KBT) avser att hjälpa personer med problembeteenden så att fokus ligger på nuet och framtiden, vilka mål som bör sättas upp så att en positiv förändring kan ske. KBT syftar till att människor ska kunna leva i samhället utan begränsning och med bättre livskvalitet. Denna kvalitativa studie visar hur KBT kan användas för social fobi och depressionsproblematik. Fem deltagare intervjuades, två psykiatrisjuksköterskor och tre psykologer. Alla arbetar utifrån KBT och studien visar deras upplevelser av metoden samt hur behandlingarna kan se ut. De evidensbaserade metoderna inom KBT, beteendeaktivering för deprimerade patienter och exponering för patienter med social fobi, är en del av det som behandlarna arbetar med och som de uttrycker ger en positiv effekt hos patienter.</p>

The effectiveness of a Group CBT programme for Social Phobia was assessed using 18 participants recruited from a routine practice setting. Therapy was based on CBT techniques as practiced routinely by the clinical practice, and were not modified for the study by factors such as strict exclusion criteria and adherence to rigid manualised treatments. Pre- to post-treatment effect sizes compared favourably with those reported in a meta-analysis (Taylor, 1996). The findings provide support for the accessibility and effectiveness of group CBT techniques for Social Phobia in field settings. While some individuals within the sample experienced dramatic improvement, some remained severely impaired even at post-treatment. The results of Hierarchical Multiple Regressions indicated that lower levels of pre-treatment depression severity, higher levels of attendance, and greater homework compliance, were predictive of more improvement on some, but not all, measures of outcome. Implications for treatment are discussed.

Thesis advisor: Donnah Canavan / This study examines the relationship between shyness/social phobia and other personality traits, as manifested in college students. Very few studies have compared shyness and social phobia, and even fewer have contrasted them. However, we believe that there are several important differences between the two. Mainly, one hypothesis is that social phobics long to be more extroverted and, thus, are more conflicted in many aspects of their personalities. Moreover, very few studies have found a conclusive link between shyness or social phobia and self-esteem. One of our main hypotheses is that there is a link between shyness/social phobia and low social self-esteem, although not necessarily overall self-esteem. We sought support for these hypotheses and others in the analysis of data obtained through a survey, composed of several standard questionnaires, as well as original material covering areas of self-image, behaviors, emotions, and personality traits. The results did indicate substantial differences between shyness and social phobia, with social phobics having higher levels of extraversion and, overall, more conflict within themselves. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Kognitiv beteendeterapi (KBT) avser att hjälpa personer med problembeteenden så att fokus ligger på nuet och framtiden, vilka mål som bör sättas upp så att en positiv förändring kan ske. KBT syftar till att människor ska kunna leva i samhället utan begränsning och med bättre livskvalitet. Denna kvalitativa studie visar hur KBT kan användas för social fobi och depressionsproblematik. Fem deltagare intervjuades, två psykiatrisjuksköterskor och tre psykologer. Alla arbetar utifrån KBT och studien visar deras upplevelser av metoden samt hur behandlingarna kan se ut. De evidensbaserade metoderna inom KBT, beteendeaktivering för deprimerade patienter och exponering för patienter med social fobi, är en del av det som behandlarna arbetar med och som de uttrycker ger en positiv effekt hos patienter.

This dissertation examines the introduction of social phobia into France. My analysis is concerned with how this diagnosis, which is inconsistent with the psychoanalytic model that dominates French psychiatry, is increasingly being accepted by French physicians and patients. I argue that the diagnosis social phobia offers physicians and patients a justification for life difficulties that was not provided by existing diagnoses such as phobic neurosis, obsessional neurosis or 'normal' shyness. / In 2003-4 I carried out one year of fieldwork in North America and France. During this time I conducted participant observation and interviews with clinicians and members of a social phobia support group. Throughout this thesis, it is my objective to understand the disorder from three perspectives: historical, ethnographic, and sociocultural. / First, I examine French psychiatrists' claims that social phobia has existed in French psychiatric literature since the nineteenth century. I investigate the efforts of these French psychiatrists to prove that the diagnostic category has a legitimate place in French medicine. Second, I look at how a small group of Parisian psychiatrists who practice cognitive and behavioural therapy are fighting for greater awareness and acceptance of social phobia. Promoting social phobia is a means of spreading awareness of their therapeutic model. Their aim is to unseat psychoanalysis from its dominant position in French psychiatry. Many individuals prefer cognitive and behavioural therapists' explanations of social phobia symptoms to those of psychoanalysts because they are less stigmatizing and their predicted outcomes more optimistic. But many French clinicians reject the diagnosis social phobia and prefer psychoanalytic explanations for patients' symptoms. Some see it as a 'fashionable' disorder overly promoted by the pharmaceutical industry. Third, I investigate how social phobia is related to cultural behavioural ideals and societal expectations. I look at how these factors lead more people to become concerned about the symptoms of social phobia than in the past. / In the end, I explain that French physicians and patients are choosing social phobia from among other possible labels for this set of symptoms. The way that they describe this diagnosis, however, blends multiple therapeutic models and they create an explanation of the disorder which most thoroughly and positively describes patients' experiences.

Social phobia is maintained in part by judgmental biases concerning the probability and cost of negative social events. One hypothesized mechanism of action of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders is its reduction in the exaggerated probabilities and costs associated with feared outcomes, termed the “cognitive mediation hypothesis” (Foa & Kozak, 1986). A number of studies have examined the cognitive mediation hypothesis; some investigations find cost bias to be more important to treatment outcome, whereas others find probability bias to be more important. However, methodological limitations of several of these studies leave open the possibility that changes in judgmental biases are simply correlates or consequences of social anxiety reduction. Attentional processes, which mark the first discrimination of incoming information, may serve as precursors to cognitive processes like probability and cost estimates. Though intuitively linked, whether social phobics’ pattern of attending to external threat cues is correlated with their appraisals of the cost and probability of negative events has yet to be examined empirically. The current project examines cost and probability biases and their relation to attention bias and treatment outcome in a randomized controlled trial of CBT for social phobia. It was found that, contrary to hypotheses, greater attentional bias for threat in either direction (vigilance or avoidance) did not predict higher cost and probability estimates. However, a significant relation was observed between attentional vigilance and outcome probability estimates, such that greater vigilance for threat predicted greater estimates of the likelihood that negative social events will occur. As hypothesized, early changes in cost and probability biases predicted later changes in social anxiety symptoms (and not vice versa). Changes in probability estimates were a stronger predictor of treatment outcome than changes in cost estimates. Broadly, findings provide support for the cognitive mediation hypothesis of social phobia and point to both outcome cost and outcome probability as potential treatment mechanisms. Findings are discussed in the context of extant theories of social phobia, and directions for future research are proposed.