Define social phobia (a.k.a., social anxiety disorder), noting the typical life stage of onset, and explain how it differs from "normal" shyness. Using examples, describe how social anxiety impairs functioning. What types of treatments are effective for social phobia?
What will be an ideal response?
People, who suffer severely around others, have social phobia, also called social anxiety disorder (SAD). SAD is more than exaggerated shyness. The most common type of performance anxiety, to which most people can relate, is public speaking. Other situations that commonly provoke performance anxiety are eating in a restaurant or signing a paper in front of a clerk. Anxiety-provoking physical reactions include blushing, sweating, trembling, or, for males, urinating in a public restroom
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What these examples have in common is that the individual is very anxious only while others are present and may be watching and, to some extent, evaluating their behavior. This is truly social anxiety disorder because the people have no difficulty eating, writing, or urinating in private. Only when others are watching does the behavior deteriorate.
It seems we are prepared to fear angry, critical, or rejecting people. Research has noted that we learn more quickly to fear angry expressions than other facial expressions, and this fear diminishes more slowly than other types of learning.
Effective treatments have been developed for social phobia only in the past several years. A cognitive-behavioral group therapy (CBGT) program has been developed in which groups of patients rehearse or role-play their socially phobic situations in front of one another. At the same time, the therapist conducts rather intensive cognitive therapy aimed at uncovering and changing the automatic or unconscious perceptions of danger that the socially phobic client assumes to exist. Effective drug treatments have been discovered as well. Tricyclic antidepressants, particularly monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, have been found to be more effective than placebo in the treatment of severe social anxiety. The evidence is mixed on the usefulness of combining SSRIs or related drugs with psychological treatments.
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a. somatic nervous system. b. reticular activating system. c. parasympathetic branch. d. sympathetic branch.
Which of the following statements about early marriage is FALSE?
A) The teenage marriage rate has been increasing slightly. B) The younger people are when they get married, the higher the chance of divorce. C) Early marriages are more common in lower-SES adolescents than higher-SES adolescents. D) Adolescents who get poor grades in school are more likely to marry early.
The NICHD Study of Early Child Care confirms that
A) the majority of babies in child care display a resistant attachment to their mothers. B) infants are not at risk for attachment insecurity due to inadequate child care. C) parenting quality exerts a more powerful impact on children's adjustment than does exposure to child care. D) regardless of quality, child care predicts long-term adjustment problems.
Kings and peasants, conservatives and psychopaths, are examples of _______ kinds. They are categories (groups based on shared properties) that are artificial in that they are produced by the interests and understanding of people and are subject to change.
a. hominin b. mental c. human d. anthropomorphic