PERSONALITY-FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH GENERALIZED AND NON-GENERALIZED SOCIAL ANXIETY

Ninety-five university students completed two measures of social anxie ty, the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety S cale (SIAS) (Mattick & Clarke, 1989, unpublished), and two personality scales, the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO; Costa & McCrae, 1985, The NEO Personality Inventory Manual, Odessa: Psychological Assessment Re sources) and the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; Peterson & Reiss, 198 7, Anxiety Sensitivity Index Manual, Polos Heights: International Diag nostics Systems Inc.). The results of step-wise regression analyses sh owed that scores on the SPS, a measure of non-generalized (circumscrib ed) social anxiety, were mostly predicted by the ASI. The SIAS, a meas ure of generalized social anxiety, was mostly predicted by the NEO dom ain of Neuroticism. This may suggest that circumscribed social fears ( e.g. public speaking) are associated with a fear of anxiety symptoms w hereas generalized social anxiety is more related to personality dimen sions reflecting neuroticism. The importance of these findings for ass essing and conceptualizing social anxiety/phobia are discussed. (C) 19 97 Elsevier Science Ltd.