social anxiety research topics

• Research article
• Open access
• Published: 23 April 2019

Social anxiety increases visible anxiety signs during social encounters but does not impair performance

• Trevor Thompson   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9880-782X 1 ,
• Nejra Van Zalk 2 ,
• Christopher Marshall 3 ,
• Melanie Sargeant 4 &
• Brendon Stubbs 5  

BMC Psychology volume  7 , Article number:  24 ( 2019 ) Cite this article

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Preliminary evidence suggests that impairment of social performance in socially anxious individuals may be specific to selective aspects of performance and be more pronounced in females. This evidence is based primarily on contrasting results from studies using all-male or all-female samples or that differ in type of social behaviour assessed. However, methodological differences (e.g. statistical power, participant population) across these studies means it is difficult to determine whether behavioural or gender-specific effects are genuine or artefactual. The current study examined whether the link between social anxiety and social behaviour was dependent upon gender and the behavioural dimension assessed within the same study under methodologically homogenous conditions.

Ninety-three university students (45 males, 48 females) with a mean age of 25.6 years and varying in their level of social anxiety underwent an interaction and a speech task. The speech task involved giving a brief impromptu presentation in front of a small group of three people, while the interaction task involved “getting to know” an opposite-sex confederate. Independent raters assessed social performance on 5 key dimensions from Fydrich’s Social Performance Rating Scale.

Regression analysis revealed a significant moderate association of social anxiety with behavioral discomfort (e.g., fidgeting, trembling) for interaction and speech tasks, but no association with other performance dimensions (e.g., verbal fluency, quality of verbal expression). No sex differences were found.

Conclusions

These results suggest that the impairing effects of social anxiety within the non-clinical range may exacerbate overt behavioral agitation during high demand social challenges but have little impact on other observable aspects of performance quality.

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Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common psychiatric disorder, with up to 1 in 8 people suffering from SAD at some point in their life [ 1 ]. SAD is linked to reduced quality of life, occupational underachievement and poor psychological well-being, and is highly comorbid with other disorders [ 2 ]. Mounting evidence suggests that social anxiety exists on a severity continuum [ 3 ], and that social anxiety that is not severe enough to warrant a diagnosis of SAD may still produce significant individual burden [ 4 ].

There is little evidence to suggest that social anxiety may negatively affect others’ perceptions of agreeableness or warmth [ 5 ]. However, if social anxiety impairs an individual’s ability to function effectively in common performance situations such as job interviews, presentations and other social challenges [ 6 ], this could cause or maintain feelings of failure and inadequacy and even affect career success [ 7 ]. Cognitive models [ 8 ] predict that social anxiety could impair social competence by increasing self-focused attention and consuming attentional resources necessary for effective communication. On the other hand, social anxiety can also lead to a willingness to engage in socially-facilitative behavior such as polite smiling, head nodding and avoiding interruption, which can facilitate interaction and lead to more favorable impression of another’s social behavior [ 9 ].

While socially anxious individuals reliably believe their social behavior is deficient, the existence of actual impairment has been the subject of a fair amount of debate [ 10 ]. Empirical studies that have examined the association between social anxiety and behavior in response to social challenge tasks in both clinical and non-clinical samples have produced inconsistent findings. Strahan and Conger [ 11 ], for example, compared the responses of 26 men with low social anxiety with 27 men reporting clinical levels of social anxiety on the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory in their response to a simulated job interview. Observer ratings of videotaped interviews indicated no group differences in overall social competence ratings. Rapee and Lim [ 12 ] found that, when asked to give a brief impromptu speech, a group of 28 individuals with SAD did not differ in observer ratings of overall performance relative to a group of 33 non-clinical controls. Similar null results have been reported in a non-clinical sample of males on overall impressions of social skill on an opposite-sex “getting to know you” task [ 13 ], and in a sample of 110 schoolchildren participating in a two-minute impromptu speech where observers rated video recordings for global impressions and “micro-behaviors” (e.g., clarity of speech, ‘looking at the camera’) [ 14 ].

However, a number of other studies have identified a link between social anxiety and impaired social behavior. Levitan et al. [ 15 ] found that patients with SAD were rated significantly more poorly on observer ratings of voice intonation and fluency during a three-minute speech compared to controls. Other studies have also found patients with SAD to be rated more poorly by observers on adequacy of eye contact and speech clarity [ 16 ] and as exhibiting more “negative social behaviors” (e.g. awkwardness) during conversations [ 17 , 18 ]. In a non-clinical study of 48 women, Thompson and Rapee [ 18 ] found individuals with high social anxiety to be rated more poorly during an opposite-sex “getting to know you” task on summed measures of molecular (e.g. voice quality, conversational skill) behaviors and on overall impression.

A recent review by Schneider and Turk [ 10 ] suggests that the apparently variable link between social anxiety and behavior is likely to be influenced by differences across studies in factors such as statistical power, sample characteristics and the type of behavioral assessments used. Assessment measures, for example, have ranged from global impression ratings to composite scores of molecular behaviors (e.g., smiling frequency, eye contact), and it may be that social anxiety impairs certain social behaviors but not others. There is some evidence that social anxiety may selectively exacerbate observable anxiety signs but have little impact on performance ‘quality’ (e.g. factors central to effective communication) [ 14 , 19 ]. Schneider and Turk [ 10 ] note, however, that it is difficult to identify a coherent pattern that identifies which aspects of performance may be impaired by social anxiety and which may not and this is additionally complicated by differences in study designs. Furthermore, where associations of social anxiety across multiple behavioral dimensions have been examined within the same study, where they are evaluated under the same conditions, these differences have rarely been compared statistically which limits the reliability of the current evidence for selective deficits in social behavior [ 20 ].

Norton [ 21 ] also notes that studies using exclusively female samples have often found stronger associations of social anxiety with behavioral deficits than studies with male samples, consistent with the argument that gender-role expectations may lead to more deleterious effects of social anxiety in women [ 22 ]. Again, however, it is impossible to determine with any certainty whether more pronounced effects of social anxiety in studies with females is attributable to moderating effects of gender or some other difference in study characteristics. Unfortunately, few studies have directly compared males and females, or different performance dimensions, within the same study where there is greater methodological homogeneity.

This study aimed to assess social behavior during social challenges in a non-clinical sample of individuals varying in their levels of social anxiety. We used speech and interaction tasks, as these represent different types of commonly-encountered social challenges. Performance was assessed by independent raters using Fydrich’s Social Performance Rating Scale, which consists of five separate dimensions of social competence. The aim of the study was to examine whether social anxiety is associated with impaired social behavior, and in particular: (1) whether impairment occurs only for specific dimensions of behavior, and (2) whether impairing effects are greater in females.

Participants

The sample consisted of 93 participants (45 males and 48 females) with a mean age of 25.6 years ( SD  = 7.7, Range = 18–53). Males ( M  = 26.5 years) and females ( M  = 24.7 years) did not differ significantly with respect to age, t (86)  = 1.12, p  = .26. Scores on the Social Phobia Scale were lower for males (M = 17.1, SD = 9.68) compared to females (M = 22.7, SD = 12.7), and this difference reached statistical significance, t (91) = 2.36, p  = .02.

The mean SPS score of the current sample was 20.0 ( SD  = 11.6, range = 2–48). Compared to McNeil et al.’s (1995) reference data, this is significantly lower than the mean SPS score of individuals with SAD, M  = 32.8, SD  = 14.8, t (57) = 5.86, p  < .001, but significantly higher than undergraduates, M  = 13.4, SD  = 9.6, t (144) = 3.69, p  < .001, and community volunteers, M  = 12.5, SD  = 11.5, t (141) = 3.70, p  < .001. The mean age of these comparison groups was higher (SAD sample M  = 36.5 years, community sample M  = 33.2 years, with age data not reported for undergraduates) than the current sample.

An exclusion criterion of previous acquaintance with the experimenters was implemented, as familiarity may have reduced the effectiveness of the social challenge tasks as anxiety inductions. A recruitment request was e-mailed to all students at Greenwich University which stated that “volunteers are sought to take part in a paid (£10) study which will involve filling in some questionnaires, engaging in a conversation task and talking to others about a set topic, giving your views”.

Anxiety and social behavior scales

Mattick and Clarke’s Social Phobia Scale (SPS) Footnote 1 was used to assess level of trait social anxiety. The SPS consists of 20 items rated on a five-point (0–4) scale, with higher scores indicating greater social anxiety. The scale has been shown to reliably assess social anxiety in both non-clinical and clinical populations [ 23 ]. The SPS has previously demonstrated good test-retest reliability, internal consistency and convergent validity [ 24 , 25 ] and exhibited high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .89) for the current data.

State anxiety was assessed in order to verify that the speech and interaction tasks resulted in increased anxiety relative to participants’ baseline anxiety. Baseline anxiety was assessed with a single self-report item that asked respondents to indicate their current anxiety on a scale of 1–10. State anxiety was also assessed immediately prior to the commencement of each task (participants had been provided with task details a few minutes earlier), and immediately after each task where participants were asked to rate the anxiety they had felt during the task itself. Single-item assessments of state anxiety have shown good reliability and convergent validity [ 26 ].

The Social Performance Rating Scale (SPRS) [ 27 ] was used to rate the participant on the following five dimensions: Gaze - adequacy of eye contact, Vocal Quality – warmth, clarity and enthusiasm demonstrated in verbal expression, Length – low level of monosyllabic speech/excessive talking, Discomfort – low levels of behavioral anxiety (e.g., fidgeting, trembling, postural tension), and Flow - verbal fluency (including the ability to incorporate information provided by the conversation partner smoothly into the interaction). The flow item was not used in the assessment of the speech task, as the rating descriptors for this component are specific to conversation. All SPRS items were rated on a 5-point scale and scored so that higher scores represented more effective social performance. Detailed descriptive anchors accompany each rating point to facilitate scoring; for example, Vocal Quality, “5 (Very Good) = Participant is warm and enthusiastic in verbal expression without sounding condescending or gushy”. The SPRS has shown excellent inter-rater reliability, internal consistency, convergent, discriminant and criterion validity [ 27 , 28 ]. Agreement across the three raters assessing the speech task was examined with an intraclass correlation (ICC). An absolute-agreement model was used [ 29 ], which is a stringent test requiring both high inter-rater correlations and minimal discrepancy in actual rating values to produce a high ICC. Analysis revealed ICC’s = .64–.86 for individual SPRS dimensions (all p’s < .001), suggesting good rater agreement [ 30 ]. Scores were therefore averaged across raters for each individual SPRS dimension for the speech task. Similar means (range: 3.4–3.8) and standard deviations (range: 0.7–1.1) were observed across SPRS components for both interaction and speech tasks.

Speech task

Participants were given 3 min to prepare a speech presenting a persuasive argument on their choice of one of the following topics: “sometimes it is ok to lie, discuss” or “can any crime be justified?”. Participants were told they would be presenting in front of a small audience and that they should try to keep going for 3 min although they could terminate the task at any point. Three confederates (one male and two female) comprised the “audience” for the speech task, with the same three-confederate audience used for each participant. The confederate audience had previously undertaken a number of trial sessions with several undergraduate volunteers acting as participants where they had practiced maintaining neutral facial expressions.

Interaction task

Participants were told that they would shortly be introduced to someone and that they would have 3 min to find out as much as they could about this person, although they could terminate the task at any time. The conversation partner was an experimental confederate, who was of the opposite-sex in order to maximize socially-evaluative challenge [ 6 ]. The same male confederate was used for each female participant, and the same female confederate was used for each male participant, with the one male and one female confederate taken from the pool of three confederates used in the speech task. Confederates had previously undertaken a number of trial sessions amongst each other and with undergraduate volunteers, where they practiced giving minimal responses, avoiding asking questions and maintaining neutral facial expressions [ 6 ]. Nobody other than the participant and the confederate was present during the interaction task when the experiment began.

To put participants in a relaxed state for a reliable assessment of baseline state anxiety, and to provide time for the experimenter to prepare the social challenge tasks, participants watched a 5-min relaxation video showing images of various seascapes accompanied by relaxing sounds. They then immediately completed the baseline state anxiety item along with the Social Phobia Scale and were randomized to undergo either the speech or interaction task first.

Participants were given details of the first social challenge task and reminded that they had the right to withdraw from the study at any point (no withdrawals occurred). Immediately prior to the social challenge task, participants completed the state anxiety item to assess anticipatory anxiety. Immediately following the task, participants again completed the state anxiety item, retrospectively indicating the anxiety they had experienced during the task. Participants were independently rated on their social performance by the audience of confederates (speech task) or the conversation partner (interaction task) using the SPRS, with ratings not disclosed to participants. This procedure was then repeated with the second social challenge task.

Statistical analysis plan

The association of social anxiety and sex with observer ratings was examined by conducting separate regression analyses on each SPRS dimension, with predictors of social anxiety, sex (− 1 = males, + 1 = females) and a Social Anxiety X Sex interaction term. Social anxiety was standardized but SPRS ratings were left unstandardized, so that the raw regression coefficient is interpreted as the mean change in rating points (on the 1–5 scale) following a one standard deviation increase in social anxiety. The interaction term was computed by cross-multiplication of sex and standardized social anxiety scores [ 31 ].

To determine whether regression coefficients of social anxiety and behavioral ratings differed significantly across the different SPRS dimensions, we tested the equality of these coefficients within a structural equation model. Predictors were the same as for the multiple regression analysis described above, and outcome variables were two SPRS dimensions (specified with correlated errors) whose coefficients were to be compared. We then imposed an equality constraint on the coefficient of social anxiety with each of two performance dimension coefficients. If a likelihood ratio test indicates a significant decrease in fit when an equality constraint is used, this indicates that the two coefficients are not equal [ 32 ]. Analyses were conducted in R using the lavaan [ 33 ] package .

Data screening

Regression residual plots for SPRS ratings revealed normality and homoscedasticity assumptions were met with no obvious outliers present. A negative skew of speech and interaction task times (due to a ceiling effect from the 3-min time limit) was observed, so p -values for analysis of task time data were computed from 10,000 bootstrapped samples.

Social challenge tasks: anxiety manipulation check

Consistent with the successful induction of anxiety, paired t-tests found significant increases from baseline anxiety for the speech task at pre-task ( t (92) =5.58, p  < .001) and during-task ( t (92) =9.92, p  < .001) periods, and for the interaction task at pre-task ( t (92) =5.84, p  < .001) and during-task periods ( t (92) =5.69, p  < .001) (see Table  1 for mean task anxiety scores at each assessment period). To check that anxiety was induced in both male and female participants, t-tests were repeated for each gender separately. For males, significant increases from baseline anxiety were uniformly found at pre-task ( t (44) =3.61, p  < .001) and during-task ( t (44) =5.63, p  < .001) in the speech task, and pre-task ( t (44) =2.52, p  = .015) and during-task ( t (44) =4.15, p  < .001) in the interaction task. This pattern of results was replicated for females, with significant increases from baseline anxiety observed at pre-task ( t (47) =4.49, p  < .001) and during-task ( t (47) =8.58, p  < .001) for the speech task, and pre-task ( t (47) =5.89, p  = .015) and during-task ( t (47) =4.03, p  < .001) for the interaction task.

Table 1 also reports correlations of social anxiety and gender with self-reported anxiety and shows social anxiety to be consistently moderately associated with increased anxiety response, and additionally that females generally reported greater anxiety compared to males.

Some participants terminated the social challenge tasks before the 3-min limit (speech M  = 127  s , interaction M  = 177  s ). As such, we computed the association between social anxiety and task time, as observers’ ratings might conceivably be affected by early task termination. No significant association was observed for either speech ( r  = −.02, p  = .88) or interaction ( r  = −.19, p  = .13) tasks.

Primary analysis

Separate regression analyses were performed on each SPRS dimension for the speech and interaction tasks resulting in 9 regression tests (4 SPRS speech dimensions, 5 SPRS interaction dimensions). To control type I error rate, we used an adjusted alpha criterion of α = .021 based on the Dubey-Armitage Parmar correction [ 34 ], which adjusts the conventional level of .05 based on the number of tests conducted (9) and the mean correlation between outcomes ( r  = .59 for SPRS ratings).

Speech task: social anxiety, sex and SPRS ratings

Table  2 shows the unstandardized ( B ) and standardized ( ß ) coefficients of social anxiety with observer ratings on each SPRS item resulting from the regression analysis of the speech task. These results show that social anxiety was a significant predictor of increased discomfort 2 ( B  = -0.28, ß  = -0.42 , p  < .001), but not of gaze, vocal quality or length. There were no significant sex (Table 3 ) or Social Anxiety X Sex interaction effects ( p  = .10–.96).

With respect to the magnitude of the association between social anxiety and SPRS discomfort, as SPRS ratings were left unstandardized, B represents the mean change in SPRS discomfort ratings on the 5-point scale for a one SD increase in social anxiety. As such, this indicates that a change from − 1 SD (low) to + 1 SD (high) social anxiety is associated with a 0.56-point increase in discomfort. Footnote 2

Interaction task: social anxiety, sex and SPRS ratings

For the interaction task, social anxiety was significantly associated with ratings on the discomfort dimension ( B  = -0.36, ß  = -.45, p  < .001), but not with other SPRS dimensions (Table 2 ). No significant sex (Table 3 ) or interaction effects ( p  = .09–.98) were observed. The unstandardized regression coefficient of B  = -0.36 for discomfort indicates that a change from − 1 SD (low) to + 1 SD (high) social anxiety is associated with a 0.72-point increase 2 in discomfort.

Comparison of regression coefficients of social anxiety across SPRS dimensions

A likelihood ratio test was used to compare the regression coefficient of social anxiety for SPRS discomfort with regression coefficients for the other SPRS dimensions. For the speech task, the coefficient for SPRS discomfort was significantly greater than all other SPRS dimensions (χ 2  = 6.56–17.65, all p ’s < .01). For the interaction task, the coefficient was significantly greater for SPRS discomfort compared to all other SPRS dimensions (χ 2  = 4.37–5.36, all p ’s < .05) except SPRS gaze (χ 2  = 1.31, p  = .25). Footnote 3

One of the primary findings from this study was that social anxiety was associated with higher observer ratings of behavioral discomfort (e.g., fidgeting, trembling, swallowing) during interaction and speech tasks, but not with other dimensions such as verbal fluency or quality of verbal expression.

Previous research investigating the link between social anxiety and social behavior has produced inconsistent results. It has been suggested that this inconsistency could be partially attributable to differences across studies in the dimension of social behavior assessed, with social anxiety potentially impairing only some behavioral dimensions; although no coherent pattern of which elements of social behavior may be affected has emerged [ 10 ]. The current results suggest that, at the non-clinical level at least, social anxiety may magnify the visible signs of anxiety but have little impact on other social behavior dimensions that were assessed here. These results are broadly consistent with Bögels et al. [ 19 ] who compared performance ratings for undergraduates low and high in social anxiety. They found that socially anxious participants received significantly more negative ratings on a “showing anxiety symptoms” factor, but not on a “skilled behavior” factor. Similarly, Cartwright-Hatton et al. [ 14 ] found that social anxiety scores were significantly associated with observer ratings of nervousness in schoolchildren based on a videotaped two-minute presentation, but not with “overall” impressions of performance (based on three items of ‘cleverness of speech’, friendliness and performance quality). It is difficult to determine from these previous studies if this is indicative of genuine selective effects on visible anxiety signs or simply chance variation, as no statistical comparison across dimensions was made. To our knowledge, the current study is the first to provide a statistical evaluation of these differences. The fact that social anxiety was significantly more strongly associated with behavioral discomfort than the vast majority of all other dimensions suggests that social anxiety in the non-clinical range is reliably associated with selective behavioral impairment and that this is confined to manifest and observable signs of discomfort.

It is important to note that not all previous studies are consistent with an effect of social anxiety confined only to overt signs of anxiety. Some studies have found poorer observer ratings of fluency and voice intonation during a speech [ 15 ] and vocal clarity and eye contact during a conversation task [ 16 ] for patients with SAD compared to controls. However, a tabulated summary of past research findings [ 10 ] seems to suggest that where the ‘performance’ aspects of social behavior are also affected, this generally appears to be in clinical samples. The most logical conclusion to draw from this is that high levels of social anxiety within the non-clinical range may primarily exacerbate visible anxiety signs with less impact on other performance aspects, but exhibit broader impairing effects at the clinical level; although it is important to point out this does not appear to have been systematically examined.

The link between social anxiety and discomfort ratings suggests that behavioral signs of anxiety are visible to others during social challenges. If those high in social anxiety engage in safety behaviors to mask their anxiety (e.g., attempting to disguise shaking) as evidence suggests [ 8 ], our findings indicate these may have limited effectiveness – at least within the range of social anxiety typically encountered in a non-clinical population. In terms of the magnitude of increased visible anxiety symptoms, those high in social anxiety (one standard deviation above the mean) were rated by observers as approximately half (speech task) to three-quarters (interaction task) of a point higher than those low in social anxiety (one standard deviation below the mean) on the five-point scale used. Determining whether this constitutes a “meaningful” difference is difficult, although the fact that this difference at least approaches a whole-point difference in the scale’s anchor-points (e.g., from “good” to “fair”) is suggestive of a meaningful discrepancy and one that can be demonstrably perceived by others. Overall, these findings clearly show that social anxiety is associated with observable effect on social behavior even in the non-clinical range. Given that a non-clinical sample represents the largest segment of the population, this indicates that social anxiety may have negative effects for a large number of individuals.

The fact that social anxiety failed to be associated with behavioral ratings other than for overt anxiety symptoms is perhaps surprising. Social anxiety scores were strongly correlated with increased anxiety response during social challenges, and the disruptive effect of state anxiety on working memory and the processing of external information including social cues is well supported both theoretically (e.g., via occupation of attentional resources) and empirically [ 8 , 35 ]. As such, aspects of social behavior expected to involve significant cognitive demands, such as the production of coherent and fluent verbal responses, would seem likely to be impaired. While the lack of association is perhaps unexpected, several possible explanations can be considered. First, the sheer frequency of anxious thoughts in the socially anxious during social challenges could lead to their automatization, so that they fail to consume significant attentional resources to cause cognitive interference [ 11 ]. Second, socially anxious individuals are more likely to employ socially facilitative coping strategies, such as overt expressions of enthusiasm or listening to others [ 9 ], and this may help compensate for any disruptive effects of anxiety and encourage more favourable impressions of overall social competence. Third, although social anxiety was associated with increased task anxiety for our non-clinical sample, the magnitude of anxiety response needed to produce significant impairment may only be apparent at the clinical level. It should be noted that these explanations for the pattern of effects observed are necessarily speculative and require empirical corroboration.

With respect to sex, while women reported greater anxiety during social challenges, no evidence was found that the link between social anxiety and behavior was more pronounced in females. One recent non-experimental study did report a negative association between social anxiety and self-assessment of social skill in females but not males [ 36 ]. The current results suggest that, if such a sex-specific effect on self-assessed social competence is reliable, this does not appear to translate to actual behaviour as rated by others. It is important to treat the lack of any sex-specific influence found here with caution, however, given that interaction effects typically require large sample sizes to detect small or even medium effects. Nevertheless, our findings do suggest that if any such sex-specific effect does exist, this effect is unlikely to be large.

Several limitations of the current study should be noted. First, we used a non-clinical sample, and even if social anxiety does operate on a continuum as is commonly believed [ 3 ], results may not generalize to clinical levels of social anxiety. Second, conclusions drawn on the link between social anxiety and social behavior are necessarily limited to the circumscribed set of parameters examined, i.e., molecular indicators of performance during brief social challenges. Findings cannot be automatically assumed to apply to other, perhaps less easily defined or quantifiable facets of performance [ 6 ] in more prolonged or situationally different social challenges. Similarly, we used relatively structured tasks with participants given clear instructions on what to do, with evidence suggesting that unstructured situations may cause greater difficulties for socially anxious people [ 18 ]. Third, we restricted our study to presentational and interactive scenarios and did not examine situations involving fears of being observed (e.g. eating or drinking) and our results may not generalize to these types of situations. Nevertheless, the tasks employed here are fairly indicative of those commonly encountered outside of the laboratory, with the behavioral indicators believed to represent important features of social competence [ 27 ].

Despite these limitations, the current findings have several implications. The fact that social anxiety appears to be most strongly linked to an increase in observable signs of anxiety suggests that techniques directed towards the management of overt anxiety symptoms for those high in social anxiety may be particularly effective for improving impressions of social competence in specific domains where this is likely to be important. Techniques that help the individual recognize their use of anxious behaviors (e.g., throat clearing, fidgeting) and practicing elimination of these in a safe environment [ 37 ] may be especially beneficial. Progressive muscle relaxation may also prove useful to reduce muscle rigidity and promote the appearance of a relaxed posture. If successful, these techniques may produce more successful outcomes in situations where reduced signs of anxiety might be considered favorable, such as job interviews or presentations. Such interventions might even contribute to a potential reduction in social anxiety. Specifically, one feature of cognitive models is that socially anxious people tend to excessively focus on and overestimate the occurrence of behavioural, cognitive and somatic responses (e.g. shaking and sweating), and this contributes to a negative mental image of how one appears to others during social encounters [ 38 ]. Controlling somatic symptoms which are one source of this attentional focus may promote more positive imagery of one’s projected social self, which has been shown to increase explicit self-esteem [ 39 ] and may act as a positive reinforcer of social encounters reducing safety behaviours such as avoidance. It is important to emphasise that we did not investigate such interventions within this study, so these interpretations are entirely speculative. Nevertheless, these processes do represent logical pathways for how techniques directed towards managing visible anxiety signs, that we found to be amplified in those with high social anxiety here, could be potentially beneficial. In addition, the fact that social anxiety was associated with increased observable discomfort in a non-clinical sample also suggests that such management techniques may have potentially widespread benefits to a large sector of the population vulnerable to anxiety in a range of commonly encountered and important social challenges. The apparent selective effect of social anxiety also underlines the need for future studies to include multidimensional assessments of social behavior to fully explicate the nature of the relationship between social anxiety and social behavior.

In conclusion, the current findings suggest that, the detrimental effects of social anxiety on social behavior within the non-clinical range may be confined to the exacerbation of observable, physical anxiety symptoms with little discernible impact on performance quality. These results underline the necessity of including multiple behavioral dimensions in additional studies and suggest that techniques directed towards the management of outwardly observable anxiety symptoms may be particularly beneficial for socially anxious individuals. Given the importance of everyday “performing” to successful social functioning, research should continue to examine how social anxiety impacts upon social behavior at both the clinical and non-clinical level.

We also administered Mattick and Clarke’s companion SIAS scale to provide psychometric data for a separate study. When we substituted the SPS with the SIAS in the current study, there was no impact on the pattern of results.

SPRS discomfort is scored such that lower ratings indicate poorer performance (i.e. greater discomfort).

We also reran these tests using only one SPRS outcome at a time. This was done as a consistency check to ensure that the results of the hypothesis testing in sections 3.4 and 3.5, which used a regression approach, were the same as those using an SEM approach. As expected, both techniques produced the same results (least squares and maximum likelihood estimators used in regression and SEM respectively produce identical estimates under the usual assumptions of regression).

Abbreviations

Intraclass Correlation

Social anxiety disorder

Standard Deviation

Social Interaction Anxiety Scale

Social Performance Rating Scale

Social Phobia Scale

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Acknowledgements

Our grateful appreciation goes to Marta Kaminska for help with data collection and for acting as an experimental confederate.

This work was supported by an internal grant awarded to the first author by the University of Greenwich. The funders had no role in any aspect of the study design, data collection, analysis or data or writing of the manuscript.

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Trevor Thompson

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Nejra Van Zalk

Start2Stop Addictions Treatment Centre, London, SW7 3HG, UK

Christopher Marshall

University of Greenwich, London, SE9 2UG, UK

Melanie Sargeant

Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK

Brendon Stubbs

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TT was responsible for the study conceptualization, data analysis and writing of the manuscript. CM and MS were responsible for data collection and some writing contribution. NVZ and BS provided critical revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Thompson, T., Van Zalk, N., Marshall, C. et al. Social anxiety increases visible anxiety signs during social encounters but does not impair performance. BMC Psychol 7 , 24 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-019-0300-5

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Resting-state neuroimaging in social anxiety disorder: a systematic review

• Simone Mizzi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3346-566X 1 ,
• Mangor Pedersen 2 ,
• Valentina Lorenzetti 3 ,
• Markus Heinrichs 4 , 5 &
• Izelle Labuschagne   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1590-0947 1  

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There has been a growing interest in resting-state brain alterations in people with social anxiety disorder. However, the evidence has been mixed and contested and further understanding of the neurobiology of this disorder may aid in informing methods to increase diagnostic accuracy and treatment targets. With this systematic review, we aimed to synthesize the findings of the neuroimaging literature on resting-state functional activity and connectivity in social anxiety disorder, and to summarize associations between brain and social anxiety symptoms to further characterize the neurobiology of the disorder. We systematically searched seven databases for empirical research studies. Thirty-five studies met the inclusion criteria, with a total of 1611 participants (795 people with social anxiety disorder and 816 controls). Studies involving resting-state seed-based functional connectivity analyses were the most common. Individuals with social anxiety disorder (vs. controls) displayed both higher and lower connectivity between frontal–amygdala and frontal–parietal regions. Frontal regions were the most consistently implicated across other analysis methods, and most associated with social anxiety symptoms. Small sample sizes and variation in the types of analyses used across studies may have contributed to the inconsistencies in the findings of this review. This review provides novel insights into established neurobiological models of social anxiety disorder and provides an update on what is known about the neurobiology of this disorder in the absence of any overt tasks (i.e., resting state). The knowledge gained from this body of research enabled us to also provide recommendations for a more standardized imaging pre-processing approach to examine resting-state brain activity and connectivity that could help advance knowledge in this field. We believe this is warranted to take the next step toward clinical translation in social anxiety disorder that may lead to better treatment outcomes by informing the identification of neurobiological targets for treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (SM).

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Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Behavioral and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia

Simone Mizzi & Izelle Labuschagne

Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

• Mangor Pedersen

Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Behavioral and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia

Valentina Lorenzetti

Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center, Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

Markus Heinrichs

Department of Psychology, Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

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Mizzi, S., Pedersen, M., Lorenzetti, V. et al. Resting-state neuroimaging in social anxiety disorder: a systematic review. Mol Psychiatry 27 , 164–179 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01154-6

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Social anxiety: topics and emotions shared on Reddit before and during the coronavirus pandemic

• Published: 11 April 2024

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• Viktoriya Manova   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6264-1853 1 ,
• Francesca Grosso 2 , 3 ,
• Bassam Khoury 1 &
• Francesco Pagnini 2  

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Social media platforms such as Reddit allow users to share information and find support about different topics. The present research investigated the topics, sentiments, and emotions discussed in a subreddit about social anxiety prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was used to discover latent topics from the data. Sentiment and emotion analyses were performed on the posts and comments associated with each topic. Two-proportions z-tests were computed to investigate whether the percentage of positive, negative, and neutral sentiments expressed in posts and comments for each topic differed between the period prior to and during COVID-19. Thirteen topics about social interactions, coping mechanisms, and physiological and cognitive aspects of social anxiety emerged: (1) Miscellaneous, (2) Interacting with others, (3) Family and time, (4) Medication and receiving help, (5) Physical features and appearance, (6) At work, (7) Physical sensations and cognitive aspects, (8) School activities, (9) Dating, (10) Communicating and asking questions, (11) Social media, (12) Stressful behaviors, and (13) Substances. There was no difference in the sentiment of posts and comments between the two time periods, with the exception of a few topics for which there were more neutral comments and fewer positive comments prior to the pandemic. The three most prominent emotions expressed were anticipation, trust, and fear. These findings inform on the topics discussed in an online community about social anxiety, and on differences in the sentiment expressed about those topics prior to and during the pandemic. Future research can investigate causal associations between the COVID-19 pandemic and online discussions about social anxiety, as well as the clinical implications of interacting in such online communities for individuals struggling with social anxiety.

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Data availability.

The data supporting the findings of this study is publicly available on the Reddit platform and is accessible through Reddit’s Application Programming Interface (API). The data is also available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Manova, V., Grosso, F., Khoury, B. et al. Social anxiety: topics and emotions shared on Reddit before and during the coronavirus pandemic. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05891-z

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Our mission is to better understand and to improve the lives of people with Social Anxiety Disorder.

We conduct research designed to improve our understanding of the complex social and biological causes of Social Anxiety Disorder, which may lead to future treatments. Persons with Social Anxiety Disorder can join us in this mission by participating in our research studies.

What is Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)?

Social anxiety can be a normal part of life. It involves feeling tense, nervous or uncomfortable in situations with others, due to fear of what they may think of you. When social anxiety is very distressing or interferes with activities, however, it may be considered "Social Anxiety Disorder." People with Social Anxiety Disorder may find it difficult to make new friends, to participate in group activities, or to date, and they may find career opportunities limited by their anxiety.

People with symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder often...

• fear doing or saying something embarrassing in front of other people
• worry about making a mistake or being judged by others
• avoid speaking to others
• fear meeting new people
• blush, sweat, tremble, or feel nauseous when self-conscious
• avoid social situations and giving speeches
• may drink or use drugs to try to relieve their social fears

Two subtypes of the disorder have been described: a generalized subtype, in which a person fears most social or performance situations; and a performance-only subtype in which fears are typically limited to public speaking or other “performance” activities.

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Triumph Over Shyness By Murray B. Stein, MD & John R. Walker, PhD 2002 New York: McGraw-Hill

The Hidden Face of Shyness By Franklin Schneier, MD & Lawrence Welkowitz, PhD 1996 New York: Avon Books

Social Anxiety Disorder By Justin W. Weeks 2014 West Sussex, UK, John Wiley & Sons

A Sample of Major Research Findings

Recent findings at our research center here at the Columbia University Medical Center have demonstrated promising steps forward in the development of psychotherapy and medication treatments which help people with social anxiety disorder.

In 2003, researchers in our clinic systematically reviewed all existing reports on medication for social anxiety. They found several classes of drugs to be helpful. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's), along with venlafaxine, a drug from a similar class, are good "first-line treatments," in that they can treat social anxiety as well as other problems which often occur at the same time, such as depression. Some medications originally developed for other problems, such as Nardil (phenelzine), Klonopin (clonazepam), and Neurontin (gabapentin), were found in his review to be effective for social anxiety as a "second-line drug," for use when patients do not respond to SSRI's.

The efforts of our research team have resulted in reports showing that medications belonging to the class known as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRI's, are effective in the treatment of social anxiety disorder. In articles published in 1998 and 2005, Dr. Michael Liebowitz (then Director of the Social Anxiety Research Clinic) and his collaborators found Paxil (paroxetine) and Effexor (venlafaxine) to be effective in reducing social anxiety symptoms, with few side effects for most people.

A series of studies comparing and combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication for social anxiety disorder has helped establish that cognitive-behavioral therapy can be equally effective as medication for many patients. Our most recent publication in this series, in 2010, found that the combination of medication and therapy may be particularly effective.

Another focus of the Social Anxiety Research Clinic has been to improve understanding of biological factors that may be related to social anxiety and its treatment. In the late 1990s, Dr. Schneier and collaborators began to use PET imaging of the brain to measure chemical receptors in the brain. A series of studies identified difference in receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine in persons with generalized social anxiety disorder. More recently, Dr. Schneier has used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate differences in the way the brains of persons with social anxiety disorder process the experience of making direct eye contact.

More research is planned to continue to develop these and other findings, and to apply them to improving the diagnosis and treatment of social anxiety disorder.

• Schneier FR. Clinical Practice: Social anxiety disorder: New England Journal of Medicine 2006;355:1029-1036.
• Schneier FR, Pomplun M, Sy M, Hirsch J. Neural response to eye contact and paroxetine treatment in generalized social anxiety disorder. Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging. 2011;194(3):271-8. PMCID: PMC2745296
• Blanco C, Xu Y, Schneier F, Okuda M, Liu S-M, Heimberg RG. Predictors of persistence of Social Anxiety Disorder: A National Study. Journal of Psychiatry Research. 2011;45(12):1557-63.
• Talati A, Pantazatos SP, Schneier FR, Weissman MM, Hirsch J. Grey matter abnormalities in social anxiety disorder: Primary, replication, and specificity studies. Biol Psychiatry 2013;73:75-84. PMCID: PMC3465490
• Pantazatos SP, Talati A, Schneier FR, Hirsch J. Reduced Anterior Temporal and Hippocampal Functional Connectivity During Face Processing Discriminates Individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder from Healthy Controls and Panic Disorder, and Increases Following Treatment. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2014 Jan;39(2):425-34. PMID: 24084831: PMC3870777

Further information about social anxiety disorder can be found here .

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217 Anxiety Essay Topis & Examples

Looking for anxiety research topics? The issue of anxiety in psychology is hot, controversial, and worth studying!

🏆 Best Anxiety Essay Examples & Topic Ideas

👍 anxiety research topics, ✅ most interesting anxiety topics to write about, 📑 good research topics about anxiety, 📌 catchy titles for anxiety essays, 💡 anxiety argumentative essay topics, ❓ research questions about anxiety.

Anxiety is the emotion that causes severe physical changes, can negatively affect social contacts, and even lead to depression. Here we’ve gathered top research questions about anxiety disorder as a mental health issue, as well as anxiety essay examples. Get inspired with us!

• Social Anxiety Disorder: Female 15-Year-Old Student Since she often downplays her achievements, then it may also be true that Joann expects to fail in the tests or classroom activities.
• Anxiety Disorders: Definition, Causes, Impacts and Treatment Negative reinforcement occurs since the avoidance behavior leads to the avoidance of the discomfort of the anxiety, which is a desirable reward to the individual with anxiety disorder.
• The Generalized Anxiety Disorder According to Bourne, there are a number of treatments that one can refer to in order to curb the generalized anxiety behavior.
• Freud’s Anxiety Neurosis – Psychology The objective of this study is to expose Freud’s anxiety neurosis and to provide a comprehensive approach as to the causes, treatments, and symptoms of the anxiety neurosis.
• Anxiety and Depression Among College Students The central hypothesis for this study is that college students have a higher rate of anxiety and depression. Some of the materials to be used in the study will include pencils, papers, and tests.
• Exam Anxiety: A Descriptive Statistics Study The questionnaire assessed the quality and quantity of sleep because they are significant in determining the level of anxiety and students’ performance.
• The Reiss-Epstein-Gursky Anxiety Sensitivity Index However, the ASI-R is discussed as useful to make decisions regarding the patients’ level of the anxiety sensitivity and associated psychological disorders.
• Diagnosis and Treatment of Anxiety Disorder The classifications of anxiety disorder include the phobias, the generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, separation anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Principal Component Analysis: Anxiety in Students Since students experience anxiety in the course of learning SPSS, the questionnaire aims to measure and ascertain the extent of SPSS anxiety. In essence, the study aims to use PCA in revealing principal variables that […]
• “Status Anxiety” by Alain de Botton Within the ego psychoanalytic theoretical context of the identity statuses, social status ought to refer to the similarity experienced between one’s personal attributes and one’s ego ideal standards, a match that should improve in adolescence […]
• Conflict and Anxiety by Psychoanalysts and Behaviourists This paper shows that the main differences between the psychoanalytic and behavioural interpretations of conflict and anxiety are the conceptions, treatments, and perceived causes of both concepts.
• How Can Students Manage Anxiety As a result, students do not recognize that their mental health state is a result of the anxiety they feel because of the drastic changes that happened in their life and their stress continues to […]
• Glossophobia: The Public Speaking Anxiety The level of fear in public speaking among the male and female participants was determined using a percentage and frequency approach.
• Social Anxiety Disorder Causes and Symptoms Also referred to as social phobia, social anxiety disorder is a psychological condition that is associated with the constant fear of surrounding social conditions.
• Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD) A routine can help to ease the pain and enable a child to develop trust in both their independence and parents.
• Abnormal Psychology Case Study: General Anxiety Disorder Generalized Anxiety Disorder is one of the anxiety disorders caused by abnormalities in the functioning of brain chemicals such as neurotransmitters.
• Anxiety Measurement: MASC and BAI Two of the most effective assessment tools are the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. The main goal of this paper is to analyze and compare two assessment tools: the Multidimensional […]
• Anxiety Disorder: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction The researcher aims to use the tools suggested by Majid et al.and Hoge et al.to evaluate the levels of anxiety in the patient at the beginning of the intervention, during, and after it.
• Comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation: Recurring Anxiety Attacks CC: The patient is suffering from recurring anxiety attacks whenever she has to leave her house, which is why she has been largely unable to perform basic tasks, as well as communicate with her family […]
• Exercise Eases the Symptoms of Anxiety The review of the literature generally demonstrates the significant effects of exercise in alleviating the symptoms of anxiety. In the future, one needs to focus on patients diagnosed with anxiety and investigate the types of […]
• Depression and Anxiety Among African Americans Finally, it should be insightful to understand the attitudes of friends and family members, so 5 additional interviews will be conducted with Black and White persons not having the identified mental conditions. The selected mental […]
• Generalized Anxiety Behavioral Modification In effect, the primary symptom of GAD is maintained by negative reinforcement such that: people with the disorder worry constantly about a negative event occurring despite its improbability and constant worry leads to distress.
• The Symptoms and Causes of a Social Anxiety Disorder Efforts in public health are required to increase understanding of social anxiety, the difficulties it presents, and the methods for overcoming it.
• Anxiety Disorders and Their Negative Effects The researchers looked to address the effects of anxiety disorders on people’s social, family, affective, and professional lives, as well as to analyze the conviviality of those who suffer from anxiety disorders.
• School Anxiety and Phobia in Children Fear of school is a widespread phenomenon in the modern world, so it is essential to track the symptoms as quickly as possible and eradicate the cause of stress.
• Music Performance Anxiety Alleviation The workshop presentation majored in the discussion of the Music Performance Anxiety, the effect of the condition on violinists, and the therapeutic and medical means of alleviating the conditions.
• Jungian Psychotherapy for Depression and Anxiety They work as a pizza delivery man in their spare time from scientific activities, and their parents also send them a small amount of money every month.S.migrated to New York not only to get an […]
• How to Alleviate the Stage Performance Anxiety of Violinists It is practically due to the lack of a particular definition of MPA and probably the absence of a standard to assure randomized, well-conduct, controlled study trials.
• Meditation Effects on Anxiety and Stress My goal in this exercise was to use meditation to manage anxiety and stress and improve my general mental well-being. I am not accustomed to meditation and had to turn to YouTube for guidance.
• General Anxiety Disorder Pharmacological Treatment Hydroxyzine is the only antihistamine medication approved by the FDA for the treatment of GAD. Other drugs used in the world for the treatment of GAD are not approved for use by the FDA.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder Diagnostics Were you unable to cope with the excitement and calm down on any occasion in the last 14 days? Was it difficult for you to relax in the last 14 days?
• Anxiety Disorders: Symptoms, Causes, and Classroom Strategies The focus of this paper is on one of the most common types of anxiety disorder, which is generalized anxiety disorder, characterized by a continuous feeling of fear or anxiety that might interfere with day-to-day […]
• Assessing and Treating Patients With Anxiety Disorders According to the provided background information and the results of the mental diagnosis, it is clear that the client is suffering from GAD.
• Psychiatric Evaluation: Sadness and Anxiety She kept up with her counseling sessions and remained on the medication prescribed for her depression well into her early twenties. She has found the cure to be beneficial in controlling her symptoms.
• Discussion: Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders To be diagnosed with a specific phobia, one must exhibit several symptoms, including excessive fear, panic, and anxiety. Specific phobias harm the physical, emotional, and social well-being of an individual.
• Exam Anxiety as Psychological Disorder The study also focused on finding the relationship between exam anxiety and revision time on the score of students. The findings in this research relate to the current study in that it seeks the relationship […]
• Depression and Anxiety Clinical Case Many of the factors come from the background and life experiences of the patient. The client then had a chance to reflect on the results and think of the possible alternative thoughts.
• Anxiety and Difficulty Concentrating Treatment His siblings have achieved much in their careers, and the self-comparison of Eric to his older brother is a source of anxiety and depressive moods for Eric.
• Anxiety in a Middle-Aged Caucasian Man The primary goal of this decision was to decrease the intensity of the generalized anxiety disorder symptoms in the patient. After four weeks, the client returned to the clinic for the evaluation and discussion of […]
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Self-Awareness Based on the article, Panayiotou et al.review the aspect of self-awareness in alexithymia and its correlation with social anxiety. The research provides insight into self-awareness and how it influences anxiety.
• Online Peer Support Groups for Depression and Anxiety Disorder The main objective of peer support groups is connecting people with the same life experiences and challenges to share and support each other in healing and recovery.
• Anxiety Disorder Diagnosis and Treatment Soyara suffered from anxiety disorder and a probable sleep disorder necessitating the comorbid diagnosis. CBT with routine counselling would be the most efficient method of treatment for the anxiety disorder.
• Anxiety Disorder: Pharmacology An increase in the concentration of ACTH and cortisol. Together with the norepinephrine and dopamine systems, the concentration of ACTH and cortisol provides an adequate emotional response to the body.
• The Manifestations of Anxiety: Case Study The nurse also makes frequent clarifications to get a complete picture of the patient’s problem. The nurse often summarizes the information she hears to help the patient keep track of the dialogue.
• Anxiety and Depression: The Case Study As he himself explained, he is not used to positive affirmation due to low self-esteem, and his family experiences also point to the fact that he was not comforted often as a child.
• Perceived Helpfulness of Treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder The research is based on the theory of the importance of perceived helpfulness in treatment adherence; the actual findings of the study are detailed and portrayed accurately.
• Moral Identities, Social Anxiety, and Academic Dishonesty In his works, the scholar establishes two explanations for why students indulge in malpractices; the Social anxiety hypothesis and the moral anxiety hypothesis.
• The Adolescent Social Anxiety In adulthood, juvenile rats subjected to recurrent social rejection as a psychosocial theory of stress acquire dopamine hypofunction in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
• Anxiety Disorders: Types and Defense Mechanisms To be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, a person’s fear or anxiety must be out of proportion to the scenario or age-inappropriate or prevent them from functioning correctly.
• Anxiety Issues Amongst Teenagers One of the most notable stress sources is a feeling of anxiety a state of mind characterized by negative mood and overall tension.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Potential Treatment With the usage of the Benzodiazepines, the drug therapy proved to be relatively efficient and fast-acting. In an example case supplied in the Barlow et al.study, the subject overcame the worst consequences of GAD, although […]
• The Use of Aromatherapy for Patients Anxiety Reduction The target group for intervention to solve the described problem is patients at high risk of anxiety. Question: Among the patients at risk for anxiety, does the aromatherapy reduce anxiety level compared to no aromatherapy […]
• Depression and Anxiety Among Chronic Pain Patients The researchers used The Depression Module of the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale to interview participants, evaluate their answers, and conduct the study.
• The Impact of COVID-19 on Anxiety among Students To be more precise, the authors aimed to investigate whether the transition to a new lifestyle due to the pandemic has impacted the anxiety levels of university youth.
• Anxiety Level of University Students During COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: Summary The authors aim to highlight the critical intricacies of anxiety and the latter’s relationship with the pandemic, where the primary data collection method was online questionnaires.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Pharmacological Treatment According to its etiology, higher DNA methylation of corticotropin-releasing factor increases GAD risk and severity as do reduced “resting-state functional connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex” and overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system due […]
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Treatment Plan for J. N. As a result, J.N.will be ready to reshape the feeling about possible triggers of his anxiety, as well as actions and behaviors.
• Effective Ways to Address Anxiety and Depression Looking deep into the roots of the problem will provide a vast and detailed vision of it, and will help to develop ways to enhance the disorders.
• The Implementation of Family-Based Therapy to Manage Anxiety Disorder in Adolescents This paper presents a critical analysis of five research articles related to the proposed PICOT question: In a group of patients between the ages of 13-18 with complaints of anxiety, does the implementation of a […]
• Emotional and Anxiety Disorders and Social Cognition Such disorders as obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, and depression are rooted in childhood, with negative cognitive experiences being the underlying cause for their development.
• Depression and Anxiety Intervention Plan John’s Wort to intervene for her condition together with the prescribed anti-depressant drugs, I would advise and educate her on the drug-to-drug relations, and the various complications brought about by combining St. Conducting proper patient […]
• General Anxiety Disorder Case Stady Like in the case of James, it can be concluded that James is suffering from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, attributed mainly to the kind of pressure he got from his place of work as a resident […]
• Psychedelic Drugs and Their Effects on Anxiety and Depression The participants must also be willing to remain in the study for the duration of the experiments and consent to the drugs’ use.
• Anxiety and Depression in Hispanic Youth in Monmouth County Therefore, the Health Project in Monmouth County will help Hispanic children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 to cope with anxiety and depression through behavioral therapy.
• Anxiety Disorders and Depression In her case, anxiety made her feel that she needed to do more, and everything needed to be perfect. She noted that the background of her depression and anxiety disorders was her family.
• Communication Strategies. Anxiety of Public Speeches The main problem with anxiety is the inability of an individual to persuade the audience. Therefore, the more an individual practices public speaking, the better they will be able to deliver to the audience.
• The Nature of Philosophy: Anxiety As was mentioned by Harry Frankfurt, philosophy is created through anxiety born of an understanding of the limitation of knowledge.
• Anxiety Diagnostics and Screening Have you noticed the changes in your health when you stopped using your HTN medications? Do you observe some changes or problems with your memory?
• Managing Social Anxiety Disorder: Clinical Trial in Psychiatry For instance, the location of the numerical correlation between the use of the identified types of medicine and the subsequent identification of the outcomes can be viewed as crucial to the assessment of the drug […]
• Mobile Addiction and Anxiety: The Relationship Analysis The purpose of the study is to establish the nature of the relationship that exists between mobile addiction and anxiety among students.
• Effect of Preoperative Education on Anxiety of Surgical Patients The education is believed by many medical practitioners to decrease the length of stay in a health facility by providing the patients with substantial information on strategies to adopt to endure and go through psychological […]
• “Effectiveness of Relaxation for Postoperative Pain and Anxiety” by Seers The problem statement and research questions have not been defined but the review of literature reveals that very little work has been done on the topic of effectiveness of relaxation for post operative pain and […]
• Anxiety Among Refugees and the Crucial Need for Professional Interpreters This review appraises three studies examining the issue of anxiety among refugees and the role of professional interpreters in reducing anxiety.
• Anxiety Among Us: How and Why, Drug Addiction As the effects of the drug are not long-lasting, people who take phenobarbital tend to use the medicine more often than it is allowed in the drug prescription.
• Children Healthcare-Induced Anxiety: Analysis Arguably the most crucial difference is that children are often distrustful of medical professionals and scared of physical examinations, and thus adjustments have to be made to make the exam more comfortable. To encourage engagement […]
• Daily Patterns of Anxiety in Anorexia Nervosa The researchers failed to indicate the distinct and important sections such as the study objectives and the significance of the study.
• Local and International Student’s Anxiety In addition to that, international students suffer from anxiety that is caused by the necessity to live in a new environment and culture.
• Depression and Anxiety in Dialysis Patients However, the study indicates the lack of research behind the connection of depression and cognitive impairment, which is a significant limitation to the conclusive statement.
• Social Anxiety. Affecting on Humans The next dependent variable included the revolutionary in the psychopharmacology that led to the production of tranquilizers that were used by the people as a relief of the social anxiety in the 1950s and 1960s. […]
• The Child-Mother Relations: Preventing of the Separation Anxiety Disorder It is important that the researchers defined the issue in the introductory part of the research, as it clarified the criteria for selection of the survey participants and analysis of the study results.
• Treating Adolescents With Social Anxiety At the end of treatment 59% of the SASS group no longer qualified for a diagnosis of social phobia versus 0% of the ESGF group.
• Poor Body Image, Anxiety, and Depression: Women Who Undergo Breast Implants H02: There is no difference in overt attractiveness to, and frequency of intimacy initiated by, the husband or cohabitating partner of a breast implant patient both before and after the procedure.
• Abnormal Behavior: Anxiety, Mood-Affective, Dissociative-Somatoform Considering the abnormal behavior of people, the following disorders may be identified, such as anxiety, mood or affective, and dissociative or somatoform, which have different diagnoses, symptoms, and criteria, which may be analyzed from the […]
• Reducing Anxiety and Depression With Exercise Regardless of the type of results achieved, it is recommendable for people undergoing mental problems like depression and anxiety to exercise regularly.
• Anxiety and the Urge for Victory Among Athletes The challenges of sports presuppose some extent of anxiety and the urge for the victory in the name of a team or something/someone important for a sportsman.
• Aspects of Anxiety Disorders The symptoms of anxiety disorders are so commonly experienced and non-threatening that one is prompted to underestimate the occurrence of such disorders and therefore assume them to be just a minor stress-related anomaly.
• Anxiety and Depression Disorders The cognitive-behavioral model is different from the biological model in that anxiety and depression are seen as a manifestation of intense emotional distress and/or fear. The states of fear, anxiety, and panic are triggered in […]
• The Methods to Reduce Preoperational Anxiety Where as observation of Krohne et al [2005] from the perspective of extending social support appears to have a higher significance than that of the others.
• Relationships Between Anxiety, Perceived Support and Self-Esteem In particular, it sought to determine whether there is a relationship between anxiety, perceived support from friends, and self-esteem whereby anxiety and perceived support from friends act as predictors of the level of self-esteem.
• Anxiety and Phobia in Dental Settings: Theories and Their Relations While external factors may lead to the creation of the anxiety pattern in a patient, the subsequent dental treatment and procedures and their experiences may either exacerbate or altogether nullify the condition.
• Anxiety About Statistics in Undergraduate Students The present study aims to investigate the impact of statistics anxiety on the academic performance of students enrolled in a statistics course.
• Anxiety Disorder in Pregnancy To be precise, the dangers of anxiety disorder during the pregnancy period can equally affect the mother and the unborn child.
• Depression and Anxiety Due to School and Work-Related Stress Many young students are not aware of the roots of their psychological problems and continue suffering from depression or anxiety, which results in low productivity, poor achievements, and a decreased quality of life.
• Anxiety in Children and Its Reasons Moreover, it features vital information about the potential causes of anxiety disorders in children, addressing the role of parents and the environment in the development of the symptoms.
• Anxiety Disorder: Symptoms and Treatment According to Burton, Westen and Kowalski, the common symptoms of panic disorder are the lack of breath, rapid heart rate and pain in the chest.
• Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, and College Exam Grades They conduct a study on 110 students in a variety of majors and gauge their test anxiety and self-efficacy, then collect their results on a test and analyze the results. Notably, they find that the […]
• Anxiety Disorder: Psychological Studies Comparison The research article is expected to investigate the topic of interest from the standpoint of theory and evidence while the pop culture article will give advice and recommendations to its readers.
• Patient’s Dental Fear: Managing Anxiety In order to find out the most effective ways to cope with the patient’s dental fear, one might consider those methods which will be applicable in accordance with the state of a client.
• Optimal Mental Health Approaches: Depression & Anxiety The work of a counselor implies the necessity to understand and recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health problems, as well as find “the missing pieces of reality” that impact innermost lives.
• Test Anxiety and Academic Performance The purpose of the study in question was to investigate the relationship between academic performance and test anxiety. The study was designed to determine causality between the level of test anxiety and average grades of […]
• Anxiety Influence on Studies and Concentration It is a proven fact that anxiety has a negative influence on cognition, which is the ‘information processing’ of a person.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Its Nature For example, Locke et al.suggest that the combination of medication and physiotherapy is particularly effective in cases of moderate and severe GAD.
• General Anxiety Disorder Interventions The authors concluded that the combination of CBT and MI provides a method that allows to minimize possible risks and enhance the effects of CBT.
• Acute Anxiety Impairs Accuracy in Identifying Photographed Faces The researchers wanted to present the best ideas and practices towards improving the performance of eyewitnesses. The authors used the best methods to conduct their study.
• Interviewing the Patient: Stress and Anxiety Reasons Questions Effectiveness How are you, Jonathan? (B) This is a rather bad question, as it is very generic and does not invite the patient to share his emotions with the specialist. On the surface, the question itself is rather harmless; however, when considering it a bit deeper, especially in the given context, one must admit […]
• Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents The effects of anxiety in children and adolescents are detrimental both to individuals and society. It is also said to contain a summary of the current research and theory that have been done by other […]
• Anxiety, Depressive and Personality Disorders There are several features of the depressive disorders, namely the presence of a bad mood, certain changes in the somatic and cognitive functions, and the significant deterioration of functioning.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Female Patient In the client’s case, it is not possible to make a developmental diagnosis because the woman has a bachelor’s degree in journalism obtained at the University of Florida.
• Behaviorism and Anxiety Disorder Treatment Today the behaviorism theory is one of the most developed and reliable theories of psychology because of its methodology and approach that is evident in human behavior.
• Anxiety and Cultural Models in the Conflict The biological concept proposes that anxiety is normally caused by the chemical imbalance which in the long run leads contributes to a genetic panic disorder hence the disorder is likely to be passed down the […]
• Factors of Generalized Anxiety Disorder Prevalence Moreover, the citizens of the developed countries are more likely to observe generalized anxiety disorder than the citizens from nondeveloped countries. Unfavorable environmental factors also can increase the risk of generalized anxiety disorder.
• Addressing the Needs of a Patient With Bipolar and Generalized Anxiety Disorders Furthermore, the patient should restore his connection to his family members since the specified issue contributes to the problem significantly. During the first crisis according to Eriksson’s theory, the patient has experienced abandonment from his […]
• Attention Bias Modification Program in Anxiety Disorder Treatment Thus, it can be argued that in Shana’s case ABM can be applied to reduce current symptoms with a follow up of the CBT to enhance the overall mental health state and minimize negative thinking.
• Drinking and Social Anxiety Among College Students The article “Understanding Problematic Drinking and Social Anxiety among College Students” describes the impact of social anxiety disorder on the experiences of many students.
• Social Anxiety and Facebook Time Spending I chose social anxiety as the concept that might have an effect on the amount of time spent on Facebook each day because of the increasing number of teenagers and young adults who identify themselves […]
• Anxiety Evaluation in Rehabilitation Counseling The research study sought to demystify the facts on the relationships among the stress appraisal process, coping disposition and the level of acceptance of disability on a selected sample for study.
• Emotional Issues: Anxiety and Its Difficulties The patient, therefore, lacks the ability to manage his emotions and handle the pressure of his new responsibilities. Client B.C.is aware of his problems and recognizes the significance of learning.
• Definition of Dental Anxiety and Fear That way, studying the facts that contribute to the prevalence of anxiety in dental patients, the researchers should study the psychopathological profiles of anxious individuals.
• Descriptive Statistics and Statistics Anxiety For example, for the typical cases, the mode, the median, and the mean measures are recommended; for exploring the nature of the distribution of the variable, the test of Skewness or Kurtosis is applied; and […]
• Severe Anxiety Disorder: Diagnosis and Treatment The mental position of the patient explains why it was necessary to refer the patient to a psychiatrist. Family members should also “be equipped with appropriate communication skills in order to address the needs of […]
• Anxiety Disorder: Cognitive Therapy vs. Medications In this essay, the researcher seeks to confirm the hypothesis that medication is not as successful in treating anxiety disorders as the use of cognitive therapy.
• Yoga for Depression and Anxiety A simple definition of yoga will lead people to generalize it as a system of exercise and a kind of mindset that would result in the union of mind and body.
• Sleep Disturbance, Depression, Anxiety Correlation The above imply that many questions are still unanswered with respect to the kinds of sleep complaints affecting undergraduates and the impact on their psychological health.
• Statistics: Anxiety and Sharing Feelings Correlation The means by genders are summarised in the table below. This correlation value was used to determine the nature and strength of the relationship.
• Cognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Addiction Withdrawal The clients’ irrational mindsets can be recuperated relying on three major concepts, which are the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, the ABCDE Model, and the Dysfunctional Thought Record.
• Various Anxiety Disorders’ Comparison Lochner explains that physical and emotional abuses suffered in the early years by the individual are predictive to the development of these two anxiety disorders.
• Therapy for Children and Young Patients With Anxiety Disorders This is where the therapists working with the young patients adjust the content and speed of the therapy so that it can match with the level of a particular child.
• Patient Anxiety From MRI Scans Due to the nature of the procedure, the patient can stay in the cylinder for up to an hour depending on the criticality of the examination.
• The Effect of Drug X on Self-Reports of Anxiety in a Sample of Undergraduate Psychology Majors The students will be from the same year of study and the issue of race and color will be considered. Upon the approval of their consent and that of the institution to carry out the […]
• Cognitive Behavioural Family Therapy With Anxiety Disordered Children In relation to definite scope family functioning, the study suggested that parents of anxiety-disordered children have meagre family functioning accompanied with reluctance in monitoring the disparate behaviours in the family.
• Globalization and Culture: Possibilities and Anxieties While the benefits of globalization to the economy cannot be overestimated, still statistics have proven that the world is at a worse state of inequality than it was prior to the emergence of the concept […]
• The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety and Posttraumatic Stress for Women After Spousal Emotional Abuse Enright forgiveness model applied in the study proved effective since it systematically addressed the forgiveness process identified the negative attributes caused by the abuse, and prepared the women for positive responses.
• Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents The presentation of anxiety disorders in children to be just one of the factors to the disorders among adults as the children grow is an illustration of higher prevalence rate of the disorders in adults […]
• Death Anxiety Is a Multidimensional Concept While concentrating on these dimensions of the death anxiety, it is possible to determine such concrete fears as the fear of dependency, the fear of the pain experienced in the dying process, the fear associated […]
• Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapy The treatment was randomly administered to 15 of the 31 clients while the remaining 16 clients formed the waiting list control.
• Anxiety, Mood, and Dissociative Disorders The parasympathetic system reverses the activity of the sympathetic system when the danger passes, and restores the body to its resting, pre-anxiety state.
• Attention Biases in Anxiety For instance the primary role of the mechanism responsible for the fear emotion are to allow the identification of threat in the surrounding and to assist the organism react promptly an efficiently to the situation.
• Anxiety, Somatoform, and Dissociative Disorders The impact of these mental disorders varies from minor disturbance in the life of an individual to major problems in the daily activities of the person.
• Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology: Anxiety Disorders This paper has gone on to reiterate the fact that anxiety disorders are indeed a reality in life and as such, we should brace ourselves for their occurrences.
• Social Status Anxiety and the American Dream The pain of a loss and the status anxiety that came with being inferior to other students at Harvard instigated the urge to revenge and brought a desire to achieve success.
• Frequent Tests as the Ways to Overcome Procrastination and Anxiety The problem can depend not only on the level of the students’ knowledge but also on the degree of the tension and anxiety which are associated with the preparation and review of the material during […]
• Personality, Mood and Anxiety Disorders The first method is used to distinguish personality disorders from anxiety and mood disorders and involves analysis of ego-syntonic features present, chronic causes and early onset of the disorders.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Patient’s Psychological State He feels that his physical, emotional, personal and professional state is in decline, and that is indicative of the seriousness of this psychological disorder.
• Anxiety and Its Types Based on the various facts it can be seen that while anxiety is a common human behavioral condition, the development of anxiety disorders are not and are a direct result of various external stressors.
• Psychology of Behavior: Anxiety Disorders The subjects should be informed of their liberty to participate in the study. In view of the above, negative reinforcement occurred.
• Multiculturalism and “White Anxiety” Takaki provides a neat explanation to this resistance: the white community is afraid of the “non-White majority that is gradually taking shape in the society in the 21th century.
• Mediating and Moderating Effects of Social Support in the Relationship Between Social Anxiety and Hope Levels in Children
• Metacognitive Therapy for Comorbid Anxiety Disorders
• Anorexia Nervosa, Anxiety, and the Clinical Implications of Rapid Refeeding
• Emotional Dysregulation and Anxiety Control in the Psychopathological Mechanism Underlying Drive for Thinness
• Depressive Symptoms, Anxiety Disorder, and Suicide Risk During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Social Anxiety and Negative Appearance Evaluation as Causes for Eating Disorders
• Anxiety, Depressive Disorders, and Attention Deficit Disorder With Hyperactivity
• Media for Coping During COVID-19 Social Distancing: Stress, Anxiety, and Psychological Well-Being
• Anxiety and Sports Performance: Measurement and Regulation
• Psychosocial and Sociocultural Factors Influencing Antenatal Anxiety and Depression in Non-precarious Migrant Women
• Massage Therapy Reducing Pain, Depression, and Anxiety in Hand Osteoarthritis Patients
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Attacks
• Association Between Depression, Anxiety, and Antidepressant Use With T-Wave Amplitude and Qt-Interval
• The Neuro or Cognitive Mechanisms Behind Attention Bias Modification in Anxiety: Proposals Based on Theoretical Accounts of Attentional Bias
• Yoga and Mental Health – The Benefits of Yoga on Stress and Anxiety in Adults
• Treatments for Depressive, Bipolar, Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Related Disorder
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Development, Diagnosis, Comorbidity, and Treatment
• Effective Psychological Treatments for Anxiety Disorders: Science, Policy and Economics
• Sensory, Emotional and Cognitive Contributions to Anxiety in Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Mental Health Issues: Anxiety, Psychosis, and Depression
• The Facts About Anxiety Disorders and Panic Attacks
• The Relationship Between the Physical Activity Environment, Nature Relatedness, Anxiety, and the Psychological Well-Being Benefits of Regular Exercisers
• Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Protein Levels in Anxiety Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis
• Sociological Imagination: Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Seeing the World Through Non-rose-Colored Glasses: Anxiety and the Amygdala Response to Blended Expressions
• Employee Assistance Programs and Anxiety Disorders
• Problematic Social Media Usage and Anxiety Among University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital and the Moderating Role of Academic Burnout
• Context Counts! Social Anxiety Modulates the Processing of Fearful Faces in the Context of Chemosensory Anxiety Signals
• Threat Response System: Parallel Brain Processes in Pain Vis-à-Vis Fear and Anxiety
• Customizing Your Demons: Anxiety Reduction via Anthropomorphizing and Destroying an Anxiety Avatar
• Don’t Stop Believing: Rituals Improve Performance by Decreasing Anxiety
• Anxiety and Personality Disorders: A View of a Client With This Dual Diagnosis
• Resting Heart Rate Variability, Facets of Rumination and Trait Anxiety: Implications for the Perseverative Cognition Hypothesis
• Anxiety and Depression Among Working and Non-working Women
• The Relationship Between Religiosity, Mindful Acceptance of LGBT Identity, and Anxiety
• Symptoms and Long Term Effects of Anxiety Disorders
• Trait Anxiety and Economic Risk Avoidance Are Not Necessarily Associated: Evidence From the Framing Effect
• Anxiety Disorders: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Relating to Rape
• Abnormal Psychology and Secondary Anxiety: Excessive Fear or Worry Related to Behavioral Disturbances
• Traveler Anxiety and Enjoyment: The Effect of Airport Environment on Traveler’s Emotions
• How Can Music Therapy Be Used to Reduce Preoperative Anxiety Blood Pressure?
• Can Financial Literacy Reduce Anxiety About Life in Old Age?
• How Can Aromatherapy Reduce the Level of Stress and Anxiety?
• Does Emotional Intelligence Mediate the Relation Between Mindfulness and Anxiety and Depression in Adolescents?
• How Mental Health Problems Affects People With Anxiety Disorder?
• Does Math Anxiety Impede Working Memory?
• How Anxiety Affects Individuals, and Theis Lives?
• What Are the Risk Factors and Triggers for Anxiety Disorders?
• What Are the Different Kinds of Anxiety Disorders?
• How Can the Christian Faith Help Overcome the Causes and Effects of Anxiety Disorder?
• Can Ethical Leadership Improve Employees Well-Being at Work?
• Can Music Therapy Improve Stress Anxiety?
• How Can You Help Your Child Overcome Anxiety?
• How Anxiety and Depression Are Connected?
• Does Prenatal Valproate Interact With a Genetic Reduction in the Serotonin Transporter?
• How Emotions Affect Logical Reasoning: Evidence From Experiments With Mood-Manipulated Participants, Spider Phobics, and People With Exam Anxiety?
• How Prevalent Are Anxiety Disorders?
• Does Writing Help Cope With Anxiety or Panic Attacks?
• Why and How Adolescents Are Affected by Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Clinical Depression?
• What Are the Treatment Options for Anxiety Disorders?
• How Can Performing Everyday Tasks Be Difficult With Anxiety?
• Does Anxiety Affect Adolescent Academic Performance?
• Does Social Anxiety Lead to Depression?
• How Have Psychological Theories Elucidated the Nature of Anxiety Regarding Panic Disorder?
• Can Anxiety Affect Eyewitness Testimony?
• How Does Watching Television Affect Anxiety Levels in Children?
• Does Self-Efficacy and Emotional Control Protect Hospital Staff From COVID-19 Anxiety and Ptsd Symptoms?
• Does Despotic Leadership Harm Employee Family Life: Exploring the Effects of Emotional Exhaustion and Anxiety?
• How Does Anxiety Affect Language Learning?
• Who Is at Greatest Risk of Developing an Anxiety Disorder?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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143 Anxiety Research Topics: Ideas To Get You Started

Anxiety research topics cover a wider study field, including emotions leading to severe mental and physical changes, negative impact on social contact, and depression. Educators ask students to write about these topics to understand this mental health issue or disorder better. This study field is essential since doctors diagnose many people with mental health disorders in the contemporary world.

This article covers 140-plus anxiety research topics. It’s helpful because many learners struggle to pick interesting titles for their research papers when educators give them this assignment. With these ideas, you can select a topic you can comfortably work with and score your desired grade. But first, let’s understand anxiety better.

What Are Anxiety Research Topics?

Anxiety topics are prompts that focus on mental health issues and the effects of living with anxiety. They require students to research this disorder, write an essay, or complete a project to present the findings.

Universities and colleges require students in various faculties or schools to write about these topics. Some fields where learners write about anxiety include psychology, mental health, medication studies, and social work. Now let’s explore various titles to consider when writing your anxiety paper.

How To Research Anxiety Research Topics

Researching a topic for an anxiety research paper requires a student to follow specific steps. They are as follows:

• Understand the Assignment: First, understand what the educator wants you to research and learn how to analyze the topic.
• Choose a Topic: Select one topic in this article or develop your idea. Pick an exciting title that is narrow enough for your paper.
• Develop a Thesis Statement: Create a thesis to guide your research based on the assignment requirements and your topic. If you have difficulties with that, seek anxiety thesis statement assistance from our experts.
• Gather Resources: Use reliable sources such as scientific journals, books, and interviews to acquire content for the paper.
• Organize Ideas: Create a plan or outline to help you structure the main points of your essay.
• Write a Draft: Use notes from your research to develop each section of the paper according to your outline.
• Proofread & Revise: Once you finish drafting, read through it multiple times and edit errors before submitting it for grading.

Picking the correct topic for your research paper is essential to your project’s success. Whether you’re writing a master thesis or college research paper, please choose a topic you’re comfortable with to enjoy researching and writing about.

Social Anxiety Research Paper Topics

Social anxiety is when individuals experience fear and anxiety in social situations. Intense self-consciousness, stress, and shyness characterize social anxiety. Here are some research paper topics for students to explore:

• The effects of social anxiety on college students
• How does social anxiety differ from shyness?
• Cognitive behavioral therapy strategies for treating social anxiety disorder
• Analyzing the causes of social anxiety disorders in adolescents
• Investigating how social media use relates to social anxiety
• Investigating coping mechanisms for people with social anxiety disorder
• Role of emotional intelligence in overcoming social anxiety
• The use of virtual reality to treat social anxiety
• Therapeutic strategies for helping people with social anxiety
• How does social anxiety affect mental health?
• Understanding the role of genetics in social anxiety
• The link between perfectionism and social anxiety disorders
• Exploring support groups as a way to manage social anxiety symptoms
• How can social workers help people with a social anxiety disorder?
• Discussing the use of psychopharmacology in treating social anxiety disorder
• Comparative study of social anxiety between kids and adults
• Exploring the relationship between stress and social anxiety
• Understanding how physical exercise benefits people with social anxiety
• Analyzing the role of cognitive restructuring in treating social anxiety disorder
• Investigating the impact of culture on dealing with social anxiety

These are great topics to consider when researching and writing about social anxiety. Nevertheless, they require time and effort to present a winning essay.

Communicational Anxiety Research Topics

Communicational anxiety is an anxiety disorder characterized by intense fear and avoidance of speaking situations, leading to physical symptoms. Here are some research paper topics for students to explore:

• Exploring the relationship between anxiety and public speaking
• How can cognitive behavioral therapy help in reducing communication anxiety?
• Investigating the role of technology in lowering communicational anxiety
• Investigating the impact of social media on communicational anxiety
• Analyzing coping mechanisms for people with communicational anxiety disorders
• Understanding how cultural differences affect communicational anxiety symptoms
• Comparing treatment strategies for different types of communication anxiety disorders
• The use of virtual reality simulations to treat communication anxiety
• Understanding how parental support helps in reducing communication anxiety symptoms
• Investigating the role of genetics in communicational anxiety disorders
• Exploring the benefits of mindfulness techniques for dealing with communicational anxiety
• Social media usage and its impact on communicational anxiety development
• Evaluating different types of talking therapies for communicational anxiety treatment
• Exploring group therapy for people with communicational anxiety disorder
• Analyzing the relationship between low self-esteem and communication anxiety
• Comparing performance strategies for overcoming public speaking fear and anxiety
• Exploring peer support as a way to manage communication anxiety symptoms
• Investigating the effects of cognitive restructuring on communicational anxiety
• Understanding how physical exercise benefits people with communication anxiety disorders
• Exploring the role of positive self-talk in reducing communicational anxiety symptoms
• Investigating the relationship between personality traits and communicational anxiety
• Analyzing the impact of social class on communication anxiety symptoms
• Exploring how neuroimaging can help understand communication anxiety disorders
• Comparing different types of relaxation techniques for treating communication anxiety
• Investigating social support structures as a way to manage communicational anxiety symptoms
• Understanding how meditation benefits people with communication anxiety disorders
• Investigating the impact of social support on communicational anxiety symptoms
• Exploring the role of music therapy in reducing communication anxiety
• Analyzing the effects of art therapy in treating communication anxiety disorders
• Comparing different self-help strategies for overcoming public speaking fear and anxiety

These are great topics worth exploring for any student interested in communication anxiety. However, they require time to investigate and analyze information to write a high-quality paper.

Medical Anxiety Research Topics

Medical anxiety is a persistent fear of medical procedures and treatments that can interfere with an individual’s ability to seek medical help. Here are some research paper topics about medical anxiety for students to explore or to use for a thesis in nursing when it comes to anxiety:

• Investigating the relationship between medical anxiety and avoidance behaviors
• Exploring the impact of cognitive restructuring on reducing medical anxiety
• Understanding how technology can help in managing medical anxiety symptoms
• Analyzing different types of relaxation techniques for treating medical anxiety
• Can virtual reality simulation therapy treat medical anxiety disorders
• Comparing different self-help strategies for overcoming fear and anxiety related to medical procedures
• Can art therapy reduce medical anxiety symptoms
• Investigating the role of mindfulness techniques in managing medical anxiety symptoms
• Exploring the effects of music therapy on medical anxiety disorders
• Understanding how social support structures help in treating medical anxiety
• Analyzing cognitive and behavioral interventions for reducing medical anxiety symptoms
• Investigating the role of genetics in determining risk for developing medical anxiety disorders
• Examining different treatment strategies for people with severe medical anxiety disorder
• Assessing the effectiveness of pharmaceutical interventions for reducing medical anxiety symptoms
• Analyzing coping skills used by people to manage their fear and anxiety during a doctor’s visit
• Exploring how different forms of exercise help in treating medical anxiety disorders
• Evaluating the effects of self-help books and online resources on reducing medical anxiety symptoms
• Investigating social media impact on medical anxiety development
• Understanding how nutrition can play a role in managing medical anxiety disorder symptoms
• Examining different types of talking therapies for treating medical anxiety disorder
• Investigating the relationship between low self-esteem and medical anxiety
• Comparing performance strategies for overcoming fear and anxiety related to medical procedures
• Exploring group therapy as a way to manage medical anxiety symptoms
• How neuroimaging can help understand medical anxiety disorders
• Examining the role of different types of meditation in treating medical anxiety disorders
• Investigating the correlation between stress and medical anxiety disorders
• Understanding the effects of sleeping habits on the development of medical anxiety disorders
• Analyzing different coping strategies used to manage fear and anxiety during a doctor’s visit
• Can cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) treat medical anxiety disorders
• Exploring how self-efficacy helps manage medical anxiety symptoms better

Students interested in medical anxiety can research and write about these titles. Nevertheless, prepare to investigate various information sources to write a winning paper about these topics.

Advanced Anxiety Research Topics

You may be pursuing a master’s or Ph.D. degree and wants to write a research paper about anxiety. In that case, advanced topics such as these might be more suitable:

• Analyzing the impact of social anxiety on academic performance
• Investigating the effects of different mindfulness practices for treating generalized anxiety disorder
• How cognitive behavioral therapy can help in treating panic disorders
• Self-help strategies for overcoming fear and anxiety related to public speaking
• Exploring the role of family therapy in managing stress and anxiety symptoms
• Evaluating the effectiveness of online interventions for reducing social anxiety symptoms
• Understanding the comorbidity between obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder
• Exploring the role of culture in developing anxiety disorders
• Examining different types of group therapy for treating anxiety and depression
• Investigating how trauma can increase the risk of developing anxiety disorder symptoms
• Analyzing different coping strategies used to manage fear and anxiety during a job interview
• Examining the effectiveness of exposure therapy as a treatment for social anxiety disorder
• Understanding how genetics affects the onset of panic attacks
• Exploring how technology usage increases stress and anxiety levels in people
• Investigating the impact of sleep deprivation on generalized anxiety disorder (gad) symptoms
• Assessing the effects of nootropics in treating anxiety disorders
• Understanding how different stress management techniques help in reducing anxiety symptoms
• Exploring the connection between chronic pain and anxiety disorders
• Examining the neurobiological effects of cannabinoids on generalized anxiety disorder
• Investigating cognitive flexibility as an effective treatment for anxiety and panic attacks
• Examining how early childhood experiences can lead to developmental anxiety disorders
• Exploring unmet mental health needs of people with anxiety disorders
• Understanding how exercise helps in decreasing symptoms of stress and anxiety
• Analyzing different types of brain stimulation as a way to treat anxiety disorders
• Investigating the effects of online support groups for patients with anxiety disorders
• Examining the role of neurochemistry in the development and treatment of anxiety disorders
• Exploring different pharmacological therapies for anxiety and social phobias
• Assessing the usefulness of hypnotherapy for managing stress and anxiety levels in individuals.
• Investigating the connection between traits of perfectionism and anxiety disorders
• Analyzing how different life stressors increase the risk of suffering from anxiety and panic attacks
• Understanding how cognitive behavioral therapy can help in treating post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms
• Examining the role of mindfulness practices in reducing symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder
• Investigating the impact of yoga and meditation on mental health problems related to anxiety
• Evaluating the effectiveness of neurofeedback training as a treatment for anxiety and social phobia
• Exploring different coping mechanisms used by patients with an obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Analyzing the impact of childhood trauma on developmental anxiety disorders
• Investigating the role of support groups in treating anxiety disorders
• Understanding how lifestyle changes can help to manage stress and anxiety levels in people.
• Examining the long-term effects of cognitive behavioral therapy on panic attacks
• Evaluating different treatments for reducing social anxiety symptoms

These anxiety research paper topics are ideal for students pursuing higher studies. Writing about some of these titles may require thesis help from expert dissertation writers.

Anxiety Research Questions

Research questions about anxiety can also be an excellent basis for research. Here are research questions to consider when writing about anxiety:

• What is the most effective treatment approach for anxiety
• How do genetics affect anxiety development?
• What strategies can help manage fear and anxiety during a job interview?
• Can child abuse increase the risk of developing an anxiety disorder?
• Are social support groups beneficial for people with anxiety disorders?
• Can family therapy reduce the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder?
• Are there over-the-counter medications for alleviating anxiety symptoms?
• Are mindfulness practices helpful in treating social phobias?
• How do stress management techniques influence anxiety levels in individuals?
• What role does diet play in reducing anxiety and panic attacks?
• Does hypnotherapy help manage stress and post-traumatic stress disorder?
• What are the effects of cannabinoids on the severity of generalized anxiety disorder?
• Can cognitive flexibility relieve anxiety disorders?
• Can lifestyle changes reduce stress and anxiety in people with mental health issues?
• Is trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy an effective treatment for anxiety disorders?
• How can different medications influence social anxiety symptoms?
• What are the long-term effects of exercise on stress and anxiety levels?
• What is the role of nutrition in treating anxiety disorders?
• Are there essential oils that can reduce stress and anxiety?
• Can yoga improve mental health outcomes among those suffering from anxiety issues?
• Are there any natural remedies for anxiety symptoms?
• What are the best strategies for managing chronic stress and anxiety?
• Can virtual reality therapy treat phobias and other anxiety disorders?

These are unique anxiety research topics for academic papers. Consider any of them when the educator assigns you an anxiety paper.

Get Custom Help Online

Even if you pick easy anxiety topics, you may lack the time, skills, or experience to write winning papers. Luckily, you can get help from the best dissertation writers online. Our experts are fast, and they always deliver well-researched essays. Just tell us, “ do my dissertation ” and we’ll write a quality paper to earn you the best grade in your class or school. Contact us today!

What is an anxiety research topic?

Research topics on anxiety are prompts that require researchers and writers to examine various aspects of anxiety disorder. They may cover the causes, effects, and treatment of anxiety. Educators provide anxiety topics or allow students to choose theirs.

Which is the best anxiety research topic?

The best anxiety research topic will depend on the researcher’s interest and the project’s scope. It should focus on a specific anxiety-related subject, such as examining the link between childhood trauma and developmental anxiety disorders.

What are some research questions about anxiety?

Some research questions about anxiety cover aspects like the most effective treatment approach for post-traumatic stress disorder, genetic effects on developing panic attacks, and strategies for managing fear and anxiety during various social situations.

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6 Podcasts to Soothe an Anxious Mind

At a time of unsettling news at home and abroad, these shows offer tips and first-person accounts to alleviate a spiraling sense of unease.

By Emma Dibdin

There’s no shortage of reasons to feel anxious at the moment — a relentless barrage of devastating news from across the globe, soaring food and housing prices , and an impending presidential election in a polarized nation. But for people who live with an anxiety disorder, spiraling and uncontrollable worries can be constant, regardless of whether there’s any obvious external reason for them.

These six podcasts deliver a mix of evidence-based tips and first-person accounts that may help alleviate and perhaps even neutralize anxiety.

‘The Anxious Truth’

This long-running self-help podcast is grounded in a combination of clinical expertise and everyday experience. The host, Drew Linsalata, is a self-described “former sufferer” of panic disorder, agoraphobia and depression. Now training to be a mental health therapist, Linsalata has been delivering accessible, friendly and practical advice in “The Anxious Truth” for more than 10 years. Some episodes are practical — how to calm down from a panic attack in the moment, how to find a therapist. Others are more reflective, focusing on topics like the destructive effects of doomscrolling, how spirituality factors into anxiety recovery and how the fear of a panic attack is often what brings one on. Personal responsibility, such as how to deconstruct the feeling of powerlessness that often comes with anxiety, is a recurring theme in the show.

Starter episode: “Do I Have to Stop Fearing Anxiety to Fully Accept It?”

‘The Mental Illness Happy Hour’

Back in 2012, well before either podcasts or conversations about mental health had reached the mainstream , the comedian Paul Gilmartin began hosting this wry, candid and compassionate weekly interview show. His “Happy Hour” guests are mental heath clinicians and podcast listeners as well as a mix of fellow comedians, writers and performers — including the actress Mara Wilson , the comedian Aparna Nancherla and the author Susan Cain . What unites them is a willingness to delve into their experiences with trauma, grief and clinical diagnoses like generalized anxiety disorder and schizophrenia. Each episode is bookended by Gilmartin reading a selection of anonymous listener submissions, which can include darkest thoughts, shameful secrets and gratitude lists . It all adds up to a comforting space in which brokenness is not just OK, but celebrated.

Starter episode: “Raised to Present Well — Dr. Kate Truitt”

‘Your Anxiety Toolkit’

As the name suggests, this series offers a variety of practical and problem-focused techniques that listeners can use in their daily lives, with an emphasis on anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (O.C.D.) and depression. The host, Kimberley Quinlan, a licensed marriage and family therapist, strikes a warm and encouraging tone as she shares science-based tidbits from her own clinical practice. Many of the tools are grounded in mindfulness — the practice of paying attention to the present moment, and to one’s thoughts, with an attitude of acceptance. Since the essence of anxiety for many people is worrying about an anticipated hypothetical scenario, this kind of approach can be ideal for breaking out of that mind set.

Starter episode: “20 Phrases to Use When You Are Anxious”

‘The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos’

In 2018, Yale University opened registration for what would become the most popular course in its 300-year history, titled Psychology and the Good Life. Taught by Laurie Santos, the class focused on positive psychology, a therapeutic approach dating back to the 1990s that puts the same rigorous attention on positive emotions (including happiness, gratitude and resilience) that traditional psychology puts on negative ones. Following the success of the class, Santos spun off her teachings into this uplifting weekly podcast, which combines the latest research on happiness with conversations about how to harness positive psychology in relationships, at work, and in managing mental health struggles.

Starter episode: “Stepping Off the Path of Anxiety”

‘How to Keep Time’

Today’s work culture tends to measure self-worth through productivity, and many industries are introducing quantitative measures to track worker efficiency . The feeling that our value is contingent on our ability to get things done can contribute to burnout, depression and anxiety, and erodes the already blurred boundaries between work life and home life. The most recent six-episode season of “How To,” a podcast from The Atlantic, encourages us to reassess our perception of time, with the hosts, Becca Rashid and Ian Bogost, exploring why it’s so difficult to truly rest, why “busyness” is a trap and what theoretical physics can teach us about the passage of time.

Starter episode: “How to Rest”

‘All Creatures’

Sometimes, the best way to combat anxiety is to face it head-on. But if you’re in an anxious spiral, going over the same worries again and again, then distraction may be the best medicine. This wholesome and informative science podcast offers just that, delivering deep dives on animals of all kinds alongside interviews with conservationists and researchers. Each episode spotlights a different creature, including familiar species like polar bears, puffins and, the internet’s favorite, capybaras , and near-extinct rarities like the Mekong giant catfish. Research indicates that owning a pet may have wide-ranging mental health benefits , but if that’s not in the cards for you, taking an audio vacation to the animal kingdom isn’t a bad substitute.

Starter episode: “How Animals Help Us Overcome Trauma”

The State of Podcasting

As consumers spend more time on video platforms like YouTube, many podcast creators are reimagining their work to be seen as well as heard .

The cast of the Nickelodeon series “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide” are among the stars of 2000s teen sitcoms who are using podcasts to connect with their Gen Z and millennial fan bases .

Christian Duguay’s podcast, “Valley Heat,” purports to be about the neighbors in the Rancho Equestrian District of Burbank, Calif. One thing is for sure: It’s masterfully absurd .

The success of Alex Cooper’s podcast, “Call Her Daddy,” has birthed a new media company. Can this millennial solve the riddle of what Gen Z wants ?

A host of media companies are all aiming to capitalize on interest in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump  with true-crime podcasts.