Social Anxiety as an Early Warning System: A Refinement and Extension of the Self-Presentation Theory of Social Anxiety

This chapter describes a refinement and extension of the self-presentational theory of social anxiety, which explains social anxiety in terms of people’s concerns with the impressions that other people are forming of them. Theoretical developments involving the need for belonging and acceptance demonstrate precisely why people worry so much about what other people think of them, identify the conditions under which such concerns do and do not cause people to feel socially anxious, and link social anxiety to the processes by which people assess the degree to which they are relationally valued by others. The revised self-presentational theory also explains the behaviors that accompany social anxiety and offers implications for clinical treatment of socially anxious clients.

Duke Scholars

Author Mark R. Leary Psychology & Neuroscience