Theories Of Behavior: PSY/420 – Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia, is defined as intense anxiety of being in social situations. People with social phobia exhibit intense shyness although the difference between social phobia is significant (National Institute of Mental Health: Social Anxiety Disorder). This disorder can be observed through avoidant traits such as staying away from crowds and avoiding other human encounters like going to the doctor or taking shelter during a tornado watch. Such avoidant traits can cause both poor health and dangerous living as in the case of someone who will avoid accepting community shelter during a storm warning. Also, social phobia often results in depression, unhealthy alcohol and illicit drug abuse, and, consequently, even antisocial and criminal behavior. Since this form of mental illness is so socially destructive to not only those who suffer from such sickness but also to society in general, much more should be done to understand and treat it.

The methods used to gather data on social phobia will be interviews, case studies and personal experience. Since social phobia is characterized by avoidant traits, care must be taken in order to assure that interviews are not anxiety-provoking. For this reason, a comprehensive background analysis should be made of the clients in order to avoid causing any additional anxiety that would hinder the discovery of information concerning the cause of the original anxiety. Accordingly, a case study of each individual client would reveal insight into the contributing factors that might have inspired the chronic mental condition in the first place.

Whereas traditional behaviorists such as James Watson have discounted a client’s inner thoughts and feelings due to their assertion that such introspection cannot be observed, other neo-behaviorists such as Clark Hull have suggested that psychologists might infer other people’s introspection by a connection between one’s introspection, the environment and behavior (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk, (2017). Accordingly, research into the connection between the thoughts, feelings and behavior may provide insight into the mind of the sociophobes whose mental illness may keep them from opening up and sharing their introspection with the therapist.

Social phobia is my chosen behavior because I feel I have a deeper understanding of it. As I reflect on my past struggles, I definitely find strong evidence that I was and perhaps still am a sociophobe. And although my own social anxiety disorder will surely differ from others who suffer such fears, the introspection I have concerning my own self-reflection into the contributing factors of my own troubles may be worth discussing as it may provide insight into how to help others who will otherwise never be heard nor understood.

References

Powell, R. A., Symbaluk, D. G., & Honey, P. L. (2008). Introduction. In Introduction to Learning and Behavior

Social Anxiety Disorder: More Than Just Shyness Retrieved from: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/social-anxiety-disorder-more-than-just-shyness/index.shtml#pub2