Social Anxiety

Homework 3

Homework 3:

Diana Huerta
PSY 101 Introductory Psychology
Oakton Community College

Social anxiety is a fear of speaking in public, fear of interacting with people, and intense nervousness at being the center of attention. It is also a disorder in which a person is afraid that he or she will make mistakes, be embarrassed or humiliated by others. Social anxiety is very common since many people struggle with these fears but the situations that trigger these symptoms can be different. They include meeting new people, performing on stage, public speaking, making small talk and attending parties or other social gatherings. The purpose of this research is to examine the factors that contribute to the experience of social anxiety.
The factors that were evaluated in this survey consisted on levels of shame, perfectionism, emotion regulation and ruminative thought. The conductors also were looking to see how I anticipate the upcoming of a social event. The survey asked how I respond to a variety of negative social scenarios and for me to estimate the likelihood of it occurring to me, how bad it made me feel, and how long after it would make me feel bad for.
Higher levels of shame, perfectionism and ruminative thought and poorer emotion regulation are associated with higher levels of social anxiety. There were three main hypotheses that they came up with “Higher levels of shame-proneness and perfectionism will lead to the individual feeling worse in response to a negative social event.” “Poorer emotion regulation skills will lead the individual feeling worse in response to a negative social event.” Last “Poorer emotion regulation skills and higher levels of ruminative thought will lead the individual feeling bad for longer in response to a negative social event.”

The reason for the study is that psychiatrists are trying to find other treatment options for the millions of people that suffer from social anxiety. Through a serious of questions psychologists are going to examine the factors that cause and maintain emotional balance and imbalance. They will then figure out how the brain responses and changes based on different social interaction.
I choose to participate in this survey because I feel I suffer from social anxiety. At one point in my life I realized meeting new people had become terrifying. I had developed irrational fears of saying the wrong thing in front of others, speaking in front of a large audience and even eating in front of people. Social anxiety makes everything dark and hopeless. There were many times where I feel powerless and helpless and this is caused by social anxiety. Of course, everyone has felt anxious or embarrassed at one time or another, however it is very different for someone with social anxiety. There are certain situations in which people who suffer from social anxiety will worry about things for weeks before they even happen or go to great lengths to avoid them. Most people who have social anxiety know that they shouldn’t be afraid as they are, but they cannot control their fear.
While many people who suffer from social anxiety may feel hopeless and lost there are ways to treat and detect this early on. By conducting this survey, psychiatrists hope to find new methods of treatment and therapy from those who suffer from social anxiety by seeing exactly what triggers these symptoms and also what triggers the brain to cause such intense fear.