title: Out of the shadows and into the spotlight: Social blunders fuel fear of self-exposure in social anxiety disorder.
abstract: In a study designed to clarify and extend previous research on social blunders in social anxiety, 32 participants with social anxiety disorder (SAD), 25 anxious control (AC) participants with anxiety disorders other than SAD, and 25 healthy control (HC) participants with no history of anxiety problems estimated the costs of hypothetical blunders committed by either themselves or by others. Participants with SAD rated the costs of their own imagined blunders as highly inflated relative to both AC and HC participants. In contrast, for blunders participants imagined others committing, only SAD and healthy control participants' cost estimates differed from one another. Moreover, concerns about revealing self-flaws--and, in particular, about appearing socially incompetent--accounted for significant, unique variance in SAD participants' exaggerated cost estimates of self blunders, over and above symptoms of social anxiety and depression. These results enhance our understanding of how and why socially anxious individuals negatively appraise social blunders and help to clarify the potential function and role of social mishap exposures in the treatment of SAD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research, University of Waterloo, Canada. Electronic address: dmosco@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Moscovitch
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research, University of Waterloo, Canada; Anxiety Treatment and Research Clinic, St. Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Waechter
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research, University of Waterloo, Canada.
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bielak
authors.affiliation: Anxiety Treatment and Research Clinic, St. Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Canada.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rowa
authors.affiliation: Anxiety Treatment and Research Clinic, St. Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Canada.
authors.forename: Randi E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: McCabe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012649:Self Concept
keywords: Mental images; Mishaps; Self-perception; Self-portrayal concerns; Social anxiety; Social costs