THE SOCIALLY ANXIOUS PERSPECTIVE IN FACE-TO-FACE INTERACTION - AN EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON

We argue that social psychological and evolution theories can be combi ned to produce an adequate theory of social anxiety. From this combina tion we predict that the socially anxious utilize competitive schemata in social interaction whereas non-anxious people utilize cooperative schemata, with consequent differential effects on cognitions and emoti ons. These predictions were evaluated in an experiment in which two gr oups of students-12 high and 12 low scorers on the Fear of Negative Ev aluation Scale-engaged in a semi-naturalistic, mildly stressful intera ction, after which they were asked to reconstruct their thoughts and f eelings at points of 'discomfort' using video-aided recall. Anxious st udents evaluated themselves as subordinate, the confederate as dominan t, thought he should take the lead, and blamed themselves for disrupti on in the conversation and experienced embarrassment. Non-anxious stud ents in contrast evaluated themselves as more dominant than the confed erate, thought the conversation should have been more reciprocal, and tended to blame the confederate for disruptions. The results were inte rpreted as providing qualified and preliminary support for the theory. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.