SD3 - Jul 2012

For each statement, choose the number which mostly represents your characteristics in the rating scale.

0	1	2	3	4
Not at all characteristic or true of me	Slightly characteristic or true of me	Moderately characteristic or true of me	Very characteristic or true of me	Extremely characteristic or true of me

I get nervous that people are staring at me as I walk down the street.

I worry about shaking or trembling when I’m watched by other people.

I would get tense if I had to sit facing other people on a bus or train.

I worry I might do something to attract the attention of other people.

When in an elevator, I am tense if people look at me.

I can feel conspicuous standing in a line.

How high you score? If the total score in the above is higher than seven, you may be a bit anxious with the presence of others. The statements listed above are some of the examples in the Social Phobia Scale (SPS). It measures the degree of anxiety of a person when he/she is expecting observation or actually being observed by others. The original scale consisted of 20 statements with a total score of 80.

Who Break the Ice?

Photo: bellaswanpicss.blogspot.com

Social phobics often find interaction difficult. Because of their fear of being embarrassed, their subsequent actions make them even more embarrassing. This is the reason why a companion test of Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) is used along with SPS to test for one’s behavior and fear of interacting with people.

Treatments of social phobia should be applied as early as it can be. Having social phobia during childhood is related to substance abuse, occupational impairment and suicidal thoughts in adulthood. Much time and patience is needed before the social phobics get familiar with a stranger. Sometimes people misunderstood them as they dislike others. However, the truth is they do not know the way to communicate with others, especially strangers.

Photo: justrec.com

Nonetheless, awkwardness can be beautiful too. Have you met some shy people before? Sometimes, instead of linking them to absurdity, you feel the beauty of immaturity, the greenness and the imperfect. Bella Swan is an "imperfect" example. She is shy, so shy that we would describe her as a social phobics. Yet, in the Twilight Saga, she has her friends too. Her friends still invited her out, though at the end she spent most of the time with Edward Cullen. To conclude, shyness should not be accounted for the main reason for unpopularity. In fact, being quiet may by some means or other arouses others' curiousity. If you do not believe me, watch the Twilight movies again.

Venus Lai

Reference:

Brown, E.J., Turovsky, J., Heimberg, R.G., Juster, H.R., Brown, T.A. & Barlow, D.H. (1997). Validation of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale Across the Anxiety Disorders. Psychological Assessment, 9(1), 21-27.

Mattick, R. P., & Clarke, J. C. (1989). Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety. Unpublished manuscript.

Puliafico, A.C., Comer, J.S., Kendall, P.C. (2007). Social Phobia in Youth: The Diagnostic Utility of Feared Social Situations. Psychological Assessment, 19(1), 152-158.