Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:37:38.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Examining self-verification processes in social anxiety

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

Mitchell P. A. Howarth  and
Miriam Forbes
Mitchell P. A. Howarth*
Affiliation:
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Miriam Forbes
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia
*
*Author for correspondence: Mr M. P. A. Howarth, Sydney, NSW, Australia (email: [email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Socially anxious individuals hold negative beliefs about their appearance, abilities and personality. These negative self-conceptions increase expectations of negative evaluation from others and, consequently increase anxiety. Self-verification theory states that individuals seek, accept and prefer feedback that is congruent with their self-conceptions. This study explored the assumptions of self-verification theory in social anxiety. This was achieved by examining the type of feedback socially anxious individuals seek and how positive and negative feedback is processed. Results from an undergraduate sample (n = 84) indicate that socially anxious individuals were no more or less likely to seek negative feedback than individuals with low social anxiety. However, participants with greater social anxiety rated positive feedback as less accurate, rated negative feedback as more accurate, and were more comfortable with negative feedback, compared to participants with low social anxiety. Greater social anxiety was also found to predict increased discomfort with positive feedback, and fear of negative evaluation fully mediated this relationship. These findings suggest that self-verification processes operate in social anxiety and highlight the need for researchers to include measures of fears of evaluation when examining self-verification theory in samples of socially anxious individuals.

Keywords

Self-conceptself-viewself-verificationsocial anxietysocial phobia
Type
Original Research
Information
the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist , Volume 8 , 2015 , e21
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2015 

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

Baron, RM, Kenny, DA (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51, 1173–1182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cassidy, J, Ziv, Y, Mehta, TG, Feeney, BC (2003). Feedback seeking in children and adolescents: associations with self-perceptions, attachment representations, and depression. Child Development 74, 612–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, JV, Arkowitz, HAL (1975). Social anxiety and self-evaluation of interpersonal performance. Psychological Reports 36, 211–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Field, A (2009). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, 3rd edn. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Giesler, RB, Josephs, RA, Swann, WB Jr. (1996). Self-verification in clinical depression: the desire for negative evaluation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 105, 358–368.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldin, PR, Jazaieri, H, Ziv, M, Kraemer, H, Heimberg, RG, Gross, JJ (2013). Changes in positive self-views mediate the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder. Clinical Psychological Science. Published online: 21 June 2013. doi: 10.1177/2167702613476867 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leary, MR (1983). A brief version of the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 9, 371–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattick, RP, Clarke, JC (1998). Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy 36, 455–470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, SL, Holmes, JG, Dolderman, D, Griffin, DW (2000). What the motivated mind sees: Comparing friends’ perspectives to married partners’ views of each other. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 36, 600–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, RJ, Swann, WB Jr. (2009). Self-verification 360°: illuminating the light and dark sides. Self and Identity 8, 131–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radloff, LS (1977). The CES-D Scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement 1, 385–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rapee, RM, Abbott, MJ (2006). Mental representation of observable attributes in people with social phobia. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 37, 113–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rapee, RM, Heimberg, RG (1997). A cognitive-behavioral model of anxiety in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy 35, 741–756.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rapee, RM, Lim, L (1992). Discrepancy between self- and observer ratings of performance in social phobics. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 101, 728–731.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robinson, DT, Smith-Lovin, L (1992). Selective interaction as a strategy for identity maintenance: an affect control model. Social Psychology Quarterly 55, 12–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, M (1965). Society and the Adolescent Self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stopa, L Clark, DM (1993). Cognitive processes in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy 31, 255–267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swann, WB Jr. (1983). Self-verification: bringing social reality into harmony with the self. In: Psychological Perspectives on the Self, vol. 2 (ed. Suls, J. and Greenwald, A. G.), pp. 33–66. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Swann, WB Jr. (2012). Self-verification theory. In: Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology (ed. Van Lang, P., Kruglanski, A. and Higgins, E. T.), pp. 23–42. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swann, WB Jr., Hixon, JG, Rond, CDL (1992 a). Embracing the bitter ‘truth’: negative self-concepts and marital commitment. Psychological Science 3, 118–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swann, WB Jr., Hixon, JG, Stein-Seroussi, A, Gilbert, DT (1990). The fleeting gleam of praise: cognitive processes underlying behavioral reactions to self-relevant feedback. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 59, 17–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swann, WB Jr., Stein-Seroussi, A, Giesler, RB (1992 b). Why people self-verify. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 62, 392–401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swann, WB Jr., Wenzlaff, RM, Krull, DS, Pelham, BW (1992 c). Allure of negative feedback: self-verification strivings among depressed persons. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 101, 293–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swann, WB Jr., Wenzlaff, RM, Tafarodi, RW (1992 d). Depression and the search for negative evaluations: more evidence of the role of self-verification strivings. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 101, 314–317.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Valentiner, DP, Skowronski, JJ, McGrath, PB, Smith, SA, Renner, KA (2011). Self-verification and social anxiety: preference for negative social feedback and low social self-esteem. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy 39, 601–617.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vassilopoulos, SP, Banerjee, R (2010). Social interaction anxiety and the discounting of positive interpersonal events. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy 38, 597–609.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weeks, JW, Heimberg, RG, Rodebaugh, TL (2008 a). The Fear of Positive Evaluation Scale: assessing a proposed cognitive component of social anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 22, 44–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weeks, JW, Heimberg, RG, Rodebaugh, TL, Norton, PJ (2008 b). Exploring the relationship between fear of positive evaluation and social anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 22, 386–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weeks, JW, Jakatdar, TA, Heimberg, RG (2010). Comparing and contrasting fears of positive and negative evaluation as facets of social anxiety. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 29, 68–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, JK, Rapee, RM (2006). Self-concept certainty in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy 44, 113–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.