The effect of situational structure on the social performance of socially anxious and non-anxious participants.
Twenty-six socially anxious and 24 low-anxious female undergraduate students were observed in brief unstructured and structured hetero-social interactions with a confederate. The unstructured interaction was a naturalistic interaction in which participants were observed surreptitiously. The structured interaction was a role-play in which participants were instructed to try and get to know as much as possible about their partner. Videotapes of the interactions were subsequently rated on subjective and objective measures of social skill. The results showed that high socially anxious females performed somewhat worse than low socially anxious females in both situations. However, this difference was far larger in the unstructured social situation and was relatively small in the structured social situation. It appears that socially anxious females do perform more poorly in social interactions than do low-anxious females, but a large component of this poor performance may be a result of avoidance rather than a lack of ability.
Thompson
Simon
S
Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia.
Rapee
Ronald M
RM
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012381:Role Playing; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D013060:Speech; D014743:Videotape Recording