SOCIAL ANXIETY - FROM THE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE

The personality construct of social anxiety was examined employing sev eral methods, including the self-report subscale of the Self-Conscious ness Scale, descriptions provided both by subjects and two college pee rs using the modified California Q-sort and direct observations of beh avior recorded using the Behavioral Q-sort, of both the target subject and a randomly assigned, opposite sex interaction partner. A remarkab le convergence in the content of all three types of descriptions was o btained for both male and female subjects. The socially anxious indivi dual characterizes him/herself and is seen by his/her college peers as fearful, self-pitying and unassertive, while displaying a lack of soc ial skills and a generally awkward interpersonal style in a series of interactions with a stranger of the opposite sex. In addition, it woul d appear that social anxiety has a negative effect on the behavior of the interaction partner of the socially anxious individual, thus provi ding support for an interpersonal cycle of social anxiety. (C) 1998 El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.