Social anxiety: from the inside and outside

The personality construct of social anxiety was examined employing several methods, including the self-report subscale of the Self-Consciousness Scale, descriptions provided both by subjects and two college peers using the modified California Q-sort and direct observations of behavior recorded using the Behavioral Q-sort, of both the target subject and a randomly assigned, opposite sex interaction partner. A remarkable convergence in the content of all three types of descriptions was obtained for both male and female subjects. The socially anxious individual characterizes him/herself and is seen by his/her college peers as fearful, self-pitying and unassertive, while displaying a lack of social skills and a generally awkward interpersonal style in a series of interactions with a stranger of the opposite sex. In addition, it would appear that social anxiety has a negative effect on the behavior of the interaction partner of the socially anxious individual, thus providing support for an interpersonal cycle of social anxiety. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.