Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:54:29.544Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anxiety, emotional security and the interpersonal behavior of individuals with social anxiety disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2010

J. J. Russell ,
D. S. Moskowitz ,
D. C. Zuroff ,
P. Bleau ,
G. Pinard  and
S. N. Young
J. J. Russell*
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
D. S. Moskowitz
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
D. C. Zuroff
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
P. Bleau
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
G. Pinard
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
S. N. Young
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr J. J. Russell, Department of Psychology, McGill University Health Centre, 1025 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1A1. (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Interpersonal functioning is central to social anxiety disorder (SAD). Empirical examinations of interpersonal behaviors in individuals with SAD have frequently relied on analogue samples, global retrospective reports and laboratory observation. Moreover, research has focused on avoidance and safety behaviors, neglecting potential links between SAD and affiliative behaviors.

Method

The influence of situational anxiety and emotional security on interpersonal behaviors was examined for individuals with SAD (n=40) and matched normal controls (n=40). Participants monitored their behavior and affect in naturally occurring social interactions using an event-contingent recording procedure.

Results

Individuals with SAD reported higher levels of submissive behavior and lower levels of dominant behavior relative to controls. Consistent with cognitive–behavioral and evolutionary theories, elevated anxiety in specific events predicted increased submissiveness among individuals with SAD. Consistent with attachment theory, elevations in event-level emotional security were associated with increased affiliative behaviors (increased agreeable behavior and decreased quarrelsome behavior) among members of the SAD group. Results were not accounted for by concurrent elevations in sadness or between-group differences in the distribution of social partners.

Conclusions

These findings are consistent with predictions based on several theoretical perspectives. Further, the present research documents naturally occurring interpersonal patterns of individuals with SAD and identifies conditions under which these individuals may view social interactions as opportunities for interpersonal connectedness.

Keywords

Emotional securityinterpersonal interactionsocial anxiety disordersocial behaviorsocial phobia
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , March 2011 , pp. 545 - 554
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alden, LE (2001). Interpersonal perspectives on social phobia. In The International Handbook of Social Anxiety (ed. Crozier, R. and Alden, L. E.), pp. 381–404. Wiley & Sons: London.Google Scholar
Alden, LE, Bieling, P (1998). Interpersonal consequences of the pursuit of safety. Behaviour Research and Therapy 36, 53–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alden, LE, Taylor, CT (2004). Interpersonal processes in social phobia. Clinical Psychology Review 24, 857–882.Google Scholar
Alden, LE, Wallace, ST (1995). Social phobia and social appraisal in successful and unsuccessful social interactions. Behaviour Research and Therapy 33, 497–505.Google Scholar
APA (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edn, text revision. American Psychiatric Press: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Brown, KW, Moskowitz, DS (1998). Dynamic stability: the rhythms of our daily lives. Journal of Personality 66, 105–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brozovich, F, Heimberg, RG (2008). An analysis of post-event processing in social anxiety disorder. Clinical Psychology Review 28, 891–903.Google Scholar
Clark, DM, Wells, A (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In Social Phobia: Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment (ed. Heimberg, R. G., Liebowitz, M. R., Hope, D. A. and Schneier, F. R.), pp. 69–93. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Côté, S, Moskowitz, DS (1998). On the dynamic covariation between interpersonal behavior and affect: prediction from neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75, 1032–1046.Google Scholar
Creed, AT, Funder, DC (1998). Social anxiety: from the inside and outside. Personality and Individual Differences 25, 19–33.Google Scholar
Darcy, K, Davila, J, Beck, JG (2005). Is social anxiety associated with both interpersonal avoidance and interpersonal dependence? Cognitive Therapy and Research 29, 171–186.Google Scholar
Davila, J, Beck, JG (2002). Is social anxiety associated with impairment in close relationships? A preliminary investigation. Behavior Therapy 33, 427–446.Google Scholar
Diener, E, Smith, H, Fujita, F (1995). The personality structure of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 69, 130–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eng, W, Heimberg, RG, Coles, ME, Schneier, FR, Liebowitz, MR (2000). An empirical approach to subtype identification in individuals with social phobia. Psychological Medicine 30, 1345–1357.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fournier, MA, Moskowitz, DS (2000). The mitigation of interpersonal behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79, 827–836.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilbert, P (2001). Evolution and social anxiety: the role of attraction, social competition, and social hierarchies. Psychiatric Clinics of North America 24, 723–751.Google Scholar
Gilbert, P (2005). Compassion: Conceptualisations. Research and Use in Psychotherapy. Routledge: London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, P, Trower, P (2001). Evolution and process in social anxiety. In International Handbook of Social Anxiety: Concepts, Research, and Interventions Relating to the Self and Shyness (ed. Crozier, W. R. and Alden, L. E.), pp. 259–279. John Wiley and Sons: New York.Google Scholar
Kachin, KE, Newman, MG, Pincus, AL (2001). An interpersonal problem approach to the division of social phobia subtypes. Behavior Therapy 32, 479–501.Google Scholar
Kreft, I, De Leeuw, J (1998). Introducing Multilevel Modeling. Sage: London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leary, MR, Knight, PD, Johnson, KA (1987). Social anxiety and dyadic conversation: a verbal response analysis. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 5, 34–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leary, MR, Kowalski, RM (1995). The self-presentation model of social phobia. In Social Phobia: Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment (ed. Heimberg, R. G., Liebowitz, M. R., Hope, D. A. and Schneier, F. R.), pp. 94–112. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Liebowitz, MR (1987). Social phobia. Modern Problems in Pharmacopsychiatry 22, 141–173.Google Scholar
Mattick, RP, Clarke, JC (1998). Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy 36, 455–470.Google Scholar
Mennin, DS, Heimberg, RG, Jack, MS (2000). Comorbid generalized anxiety disorder in primary social phobia: symptom severity, functional impairment, and treatment response. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 14, 325–343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mikulincer, M, Shaver, PR (2005). Attachment security, compassion, and altruism. Current Directions in Psychological Science 14, 34–38.Google Scholar
Mikulincer, M, Shaver, PR, Gillath, O, Nitzberg, RA (2005). Attachment, caregiving, and altruism: boosting attachment security increases compassion and helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89, 817–839.Google Scholar
Moskowitz, DS (1994). Cross-situational generality and the interpersonal circumplex. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 66, 921–933.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moskowitz, DS, Russell, JJ (2009). Measuring behavior. European Journal of Personality 23, 417–419.Google Scholar
Moskowitz, DS, Russell, JJ, Sadikaj, G, Sutton, R (2009). Measuring people intensively. Canadian Psychology 50, 131–140.Google Scholar
Moskowitz, DS, Young, SN (2006). Ecological momentary assessment: what it is and why it is a method of the future in clinical psychopharmacology. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 31, 13–20.Google ScholarPubMed
Oakman, J, Gifford, S, Chlebowsky, N (2003). A multilevel analysis of the interpersonal behavior of socially anxious people. Journal of Personality 71, 397–434.Google Scholar
Rapee, RM, Heimberg, RG (1997). A cognitive–behavioral model of anxiety in social phobia. Behavior Research and Therapy 35, 741–756.Google Scholar
Ruscio, AM, Brown, TA, Chiu, WT, Sareen, J, Stein, MB, Kessler, RC (2008). Social fears and social phobia in the USA: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Psychological Medicine 38, 15–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SAS Institute, Inc. (2004). Base SAS 9.1 Procedures Guide, Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4. SAS Publishing: Cary, NC.Google Scholar
Schlenker, BR, Leary, MR (1985). Social anxiety and communication about the self. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 4, 171–192.Google Scholar
Sheehan, DV, Lecrubier, Y, Sheehan, KH, Amorim, P, Janavs, J, Weiller, E, Hergueta, T, Baker, R, Dunbar, GC (1998). The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI): the development and validation of a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 59 (Suppl. 20), 22–33.Google Scholar
Vertue, FM (2003). From adaptive emotion to dysfunction: an attachment perspective on social anxiety disorder. Personality and Social Psychology Review 7, 170–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wallace, D, Green, SB (2002). Analysis of repeated measures designs with linear mixed models. In Modeling Intraindividual Variability with Repeated Measures Data (ed. Moskowitz, D. S. and Hershberger, S. L.), pp. 103–134. Lawrence Erlbaum: Mahwah, NJ.Google Scholar
Wiggins, JS (1991). Agency and communion as conceptual coordinates for the understanding and measurement of interpersonal behavior. In Thinking Clearly about Psychology: Essays in Honor of Paul E. Meehl, Vol. 2: Personality and Psychopathology (ed. Cicchetti, D. and Grove, W. M.), pp. 89–113. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, MN.Google Scholar
Wittchen, H, Fehm, L (2003). Epidemiology and natural course of social fears and social phobia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 108 (Suppl. 417), 4–18.Google Scholar