Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T14:46:38.721Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Self-Discrepancies and the Situational Domains of Social Phobia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2012

Adam Johns  and
Lorna Peters
Adam Johns*
Affiliation:
Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Australia
Lorna Peters
Affiliation:
Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Adam D. Johns, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

The present study explored whether particular discrepancies among an individual's self-beliefs, as described by Higgins’ (1987) Self-Discrepancy Theory, were differentially related to the two broad situational domains of social anxiety: performance and social interaction anxiety. Fifteen people (4 males) with a primary diagnosis of GSP from Macquarie University's Emotional Health Clinic, and 25 undergraduate psychology students from Macquarie University (8 males) with mean chronological ages of 31.7 and 20.6 years respectively, participated in the study. As predicted, the study found that the ‘actual/other:ought/other’ self-discrepancy was uniquely related to performance anxiety, the ‘actual/own:ought/other’ self-discrepancy was uniquely associated with social interaction anxiety, and the ‘actual/own:ideal/own’ self-discrepancy was uniquely associated with depression. The results are discussed in terms of their unique contribution to Self-Discrepancy Theory research, the current empirical debate regarding the existence of subtypes within social phobia, and their implications for the cognitive models and treatment of social anxiety.

Keywords

self-discrepancy theorysocial phobiasubtypesdepressionanxiety
Type
Standard Papers
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 109 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Arlington, VA: Author.Google Scholar
Anderson, N.H. (1968). Likableness ratings of 555 personality trait words. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9 (3), 272–279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baker, S.L., Heinrichs, N., Kim, H.-J., & Hofmann, S.G. (2002). The Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale as a self-report instrument: A preliminary psychometric analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40, 701–715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A., & Brown, G.K. (1996). Manual for BDI II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A., & Garbin, M.G. (1988). Psychometric properties of the BDI: Twenty-five years of evaluation. Clinical Psychology Review, 8, 77–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boone, M.L., McNeil, D.W., Masia, C.L., Turk, C.L., Carter, L.E., Ries, B.J., & Lewin, M.R. (1999). Multimodal comparisons of social phobia subtypes and avoidant personality disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 13, 271–292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, T.A., DiNardo, P., & Barlow, D.H. (1994). Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV (ADIS-IV). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation/Graywind Publications Incorporated.Google Scholar
Clark, D.M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In Heimberg, R.G., Leibowitz, M.R., Hope, D.A. & Schneier, F.R. (Eds.), Social phobia: Diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp. 69–93). New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Clark, L.A., & Watson, D. (1988). Mood and the mundane: Relations between daily life events and self-reported mood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 296–308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, B.J., Rector, N.A., Bagby, R.M., Swinson, R.P., Levitt, A.J., & Joffe, R.T. (2000). Is self-criticism unique for depression? A comparison with social phobia. Journal of Affective Disorders, 57, 223–228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Furmark, T., Tillfors, M., Stattin, H., Ekselius, L., & Fredrikson, M. (2000). Social phobia subtypes in the general population revealed by cluster analysis. Psychological Medicine, 30, 1335–1344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hackmann, A., Clark, D.M., & McManus, F. (2000). Recurrent images and early memories in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 601–610.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hardin, E.E., & Lakin, J.L. (2007). The integrated self-discrepancy index: A reliable and valid measure of self-discrepancies. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Hardin, E.E., & Leong, F.T.L. (2005). Optimism and pessimism as mediators of the relations between self-discrepancies and distress among Asian and European Americans. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52 (1), 25–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heimberg, R.G., Hope, D.A., Dodge, C.S., & Becker, R.E. (1990). DSM-III-R subtypes of social phobia: Comparison of generalised social phobics and public speaking phobics. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 178 (8), 172–179.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heimberg, R.G., Mueller, G.P., Holt, C.S., Hope, D.A., & Leibowitz, M.R. (1992). Assessment of anxiety in social interaction and being observed by others: The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale. Behavior Therapy, 23, 53–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgins, E.T. (1987). Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. Psychological Review, 94 (3), 319–340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higgins, E.T., Bond, R.N., Klein, R., & Strauman, T.J. (1986). Self-discrepancies and emotional vulnerability: How magnitude, accessibility, and type of discrepancy influence affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51 (1), 5–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higgins, E.T., Klein, R., & Strauman, T.J. (1985). Self-concept discrepancy theory: A psychological model for distinguishing among different aspects of depression and anxiety. Social Cognition, 3 (1), 51–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsh, C.R., Clark, D.M., Mathews, A., & Williams, R. (2003). Self-images play a causal role in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41 (8), 909–921.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsh, C.R., Mathews, A., Clark, D.M., Williams, R., & Morrison, J.A. (2006). The causal role of negative imagery in social anxiety: A test in confident public speakers. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 37 (2), 159–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsh, C.R., Meynen, T., & Clark, D.M. (2004). Negative self-imagery in social anxiety contaminates social interactions. Memory, 12 (4), 496–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofmann, S.G., Heinrichs, N., & Moscovitch, D.A. (2004). The nature and expression of social phobia: Toward a new classification. Clinical Psychology Review, 24, 769–797.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hook, J.N., & Valentiner, D.P. (2002). Are specific and generalized social phobias qualitatively different? Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9 (4), 379–395.Google Scholar
Hughes, A.A., Heimberg, R.G., Coles, M.E., Gibb, B.E., Leibowitz, M.R., & Schneier, F.R. (2006). Relations of the factors of the tripartite model of anxiety and depression to types of social anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44 (11), 1629–1641.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, I. (2002). A cognitive therapy model of social anxiety problems: Potential limits on its effectiveness? Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 75, 411–435.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leary, M.R. (2007). Motivational and emotional aspects of the self. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 317–344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leibowitz, M.R. (1987). Social phobia. Modern Problems in Pharmacopsychiatry, 22, 141–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Libby, L.K., & Eibach, R.P. (2002). Looking back in time: Self-concept change affects visual perspective in autobiographical memory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82 (2), 167–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mannuzza, S., Schneier, F.R., Chapman, T.F., Leibowitz, M.R., Klein, D.F., & Fyer, A.J. (1995). Generalized social phobia: Reliability and validity. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52, 230–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marmorstein, N.R. (2006). Generalized versus performance-focused social phobia: Patterns of comorbidity among youth. Anxiety Disorders, 20, 778–793.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattick, R.P., & Clarke, J.C. (1998). Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 455–470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ozgul, S., Heubeck, B., Ward, J., & Wilkinson, R. (2003). Self-discrepancies: Measurement and relation to various negative affective states. Australian Journal of Psychology, 55 (1), 56–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perugi, G., Nassini, S., Maremmani, I., Madro, D., Toni, C., Simmonini, E., & Akiskal, H.S. (2001). Putative clinical subtypes of social phobia: A factor analytical study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 104 (4), 280–288.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rapee, R.M., & Heimberg, R.G. (1997). A cognitive-behavioural model of anxiety in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35 (8), 741–756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Safren, S.A., Heimberg, R.G., Horner, K.J., Juster, H.R., Schneier, F.R., & Leibowitz, M.R. (1999). Factor structure of social fears: The Leibowitz social anxiety scale. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 13 (3), 253–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Safren, S.A., Turk, C.L., & Heimberg, R.G. (1998). Factor structure of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36 (4), 443–453.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scott, L., & O'Hara, M.W. (1993). Self-discrepancies in clinically anxious and depressed university students. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 282–287.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spurr, J.M., & Stopa, L. (2003). The observer perspective: Effects on social anxiety and performance. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 1009–1028.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stein, M.B., & Deutsch, R. (2003). In search of social phobia subtypes: Similarity of feared social situations. Depression and Anxiety, 17, 94–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stemberger, R.T., Turner, S.M., Beidel, D.C., & Calhoun, K.S. (1995). Social phobia: An analysis of possible developmental factors. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104, 526–531.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strauman, T.J. (1989). Self-discrepancies in clinical depression and social phobia: Cognitive structures that underlie emotional disorders? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 98 (1), 14–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strauman, T.J. (1992). Self-guides, autobiographical memory, and anxiety and dysphoria: Toward a cognitive model of vulnerability to emotional distress. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 87–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauman, T.J., & Higgins, E.T. (1988). Self-discrepancies as predictors of vulnerability to distinct syndromes of chronic emotional distress. Journal of Personality 56 (4), 685–707.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tangney, J.P., Niedenthal, P.M., Covert, M.V., & Barlow, D.H. (1998). Are shame and guilt related to distinct self-discrepancies? A test of Higgins’ (1987) hypotheses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75 (1), 256–268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vassilopoulos, S. (2005). Social anxiety and the effects of engaging in mental imagery. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29 (3), 261–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weilage, M., & Hope, D.A. (1999). Self-discrepancy in social phobia and dysthymia. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 23 (6), 637–650.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, A., & Papageorgiou, C. (1999). The observer perspective: Biased imagery in social phobia, agoraphobia, and blood/injury phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37 (7), 653–658.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, J.K., & Rapee, R.M. (2005). The interpretation of negative social events in social phobia: Changes during treatment and relationship to outcome. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 373–389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed