SOCIAL COGNITION AND SOCIAL ANXIETY

What causes us to feel anxious in social situations? Why are some people shackled in the prison of their own shyness? Barry Schlenker and Mark Leary answer these questions by applying self-presentation theory. As you may recall, self-presentation theory assumes that we are eager to present ourselves in ways that make a good impression. The implications for social anxiety are straightforward: We feel anxious when we are motivated to impress others but doubt our ability to do so. This simple principle helps explain a variety of research findings, each of which may ring true in your own experience. We feel most anxious when:

ü    Dealing with powerful, high-status people—people whose impressions matter.

ü    In an evaluative context, as when making a first impression on the parents of one's fiancé.

ü    The interaction focuses on something central to our self-image, as when a college professor presents ideas before peers at a professional convention.

ü    We are in novel situations, such as a first school dance or first formal dinner, where we are unsure of the social rules.

ü    We are self-conscious (as shy people often are) and our attention is focused on ourselves and how we are coming across.

The natural tendency in all such situations is to be cautiously self-protective: to talk less; to avoid topics that reveal one's ignorance; to be guarded about one-self; to be unassertive, agreeable, and smiling. Shyness is a form of social anxiety characterized by self-consciousness and worry about what others think. Self-conscious people (whose numbers include many adolescents) see incidental events as somehow relevant to themselves.

To reduce social anxiety, some people turn to alcohol. Alcohol lowers anxiety as it reduces self-consciousness. Thus, chronically self-conscious people are especially likely to drink following a failure. If they become alcoholics, they are more likely than those low in self-consciousness to relapse from treatment when they again experience stress or failure.

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