SOCIAL SENSITIVITY - A SHARED FEATURE OF ALL PHOBIAS

The prominence of a variety of social fears among types of phobia was examined. Responses of 80 agoraphobics, 25 social phobics and 35 speci fic phobics to Wolpe's (1983) Fear Survey Schedule were factor-analyse d. Factors of social sensitivity (accounting for 24 out of 50 per cent of the variance), agoraphobia (7 per cent), blood injuries (5 per cen t) and five other small specific phobic factors were extracted. On soc ial sensitivity, agora- and social phobics overlapped; specific phobic s were significantly lower than social phobics. On agoraphobia scores, agoraphobics scored significantly higher than social and specific pho bics. A regression analysis was performed to assess the relative contr ibution of the diagnostic groups to each factor. Social sensitivity ma y be a normal evolved mechanism that is protective in social interacti ons.