Social anxiety: from the inside and outside

The personality construct of social anxiety was examined employing several methods, including the self-report subscale of the Self-Consciousness Scale, descriptions provided both by subjects and two college peers using the modified California Q-sort and direct observations of behavior recorded using the Behavioral Q-sort, of both the target subject and a randomly assigned, opposite sex interaction partner. A remarkable convergence in the content of all three types of descriptions was obtained for both male and female subjects. The socially anxious individual characterizes him/herself and is seen by his/her college peers as fearful, self-pitying and unassertive, while displaying a lack of social skills and a generally awkward interpersonal style in a series of interactions with a stranger of the opposite sex. In addition, it would appear that social anxiety has a negative effect on the behavior of the interaction partner of the socially anxious individual, thus providing support for an interpersonal cycle of social anxiety.