Social Anxiety Disorder: Symptoms, Treatment, and Theories

This term paper explores Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), including its symptoms, treatment options, and related theories. It discusses the impact of SAD on individuals, families, and friends, as well as the stigma surrounding mental disorders. The paper emphasizes the need for effective treatment modalities.

Running head: ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY I
Abnormal Psychology
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TERM PAPER

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 2
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Title page
This paper explores SAD (Social anxiety disorder), this is a mental health diagnosis
which shows signs such as marked as well as a persistent fear of negative evaluation in
performance situations, which lead to weakening in life functioning. The paper will also
enlighten the symptoms along with the treatment options. The origin of the disorders and the
theory related to the disorders are also discussed.
Keywords: Social anxiety, literature review
Introduction
Social phobia or social anxiety disorder is a mental disorder in which an individual has
worry or fear of concerning social situations (Calzada et al., 2017). Social phobia is accompanied
by Mutism. This type of disorder is most common in middle-aged women and children. Twelve
percent of adults and 9% of youth may also experience this type of anxiety during their lives
time. Initially, the term anxiety was generally expressed as nerves disorder or anxiety. The
understanding of anxiety was impoverished among the ordinary people as well as even by health
professionals. And for this reason, few individuals got effective treatment. The historical
developments of anxiety can be explained in 3 stages: pre-development period, recent
developments and initial developmental period.
Pre-Development period: in early 400B.C, Social anxiety was described as shyness.
Greeks first coined the term phobia for terror or fear. They used the term phobia to convey the
different types of fear (Houtkamp et al., 2017). The social anxiety during this period includes
anthropophobia and xenophobia. During the 18 century, psychologists, authors, and European
psychiatrists started investigating the topic.

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Initial development period; the first person to study ereuthophobia was known as Casper.
In the year 1846, he defined it as a serious of social anxiety that affects a young man. Regis and
Pitres conducted the same study on Phobia in 1902 and 1807. In the year 1910, Hartenberg
mentioned different forms of anxiety for example performance anxiety, personality, and timidity
disorder. In the year 1960, Isaac Marks developed the idea of categorizing social phobias
(Lindne et al., 2018).
Recent developments: in the year 1980, APA described social phobia as a psychiatric
diagnosis. In the third edition, it also described it as the fear of performance situations. In the
year 1994, the name social phobia was substituted by Social anxiety disorder (Park et al., 2017).
Literature review
SAD is characterized by pervasive and persistent fear of negative evaluation in a
performance situation. People with this diagnosis mostly fear being examined by other people,
and they avoid situations like that or struggle through with strong anxiety, this mostly leads to a
disabling impairment of their lives (Szaflarski, Cubbins & Meganathan, 2017). This disorder
mainly develops during the onset of adolescence. Studies indicated that anxiety is an impairing
disorder much greater in intensity and pervasiveness than normal shyness. Because of it is a
highly prevalent disorder, thorough treatment modalities are necessary for establishing the tool
needed to prevent symptoms as well as improve life, while reducing the risk of comorbid
disorders (Vigod et al., 2017).
The theories that are related to social anxiety disorders include etiological theories. The
psychoanalytical theory states that social anxiety is a conflict between superego and id, which
was repressed during the early development but appears again in adulthood. On the other hand,
Biological theories take into consideration the sympathoadrenal responses to stress as well as

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observe the blood vessels contract because norepinephrine and epinephrine have been release
(Amorim, Roustan, & Sirgo, 2017).
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT involves modifying dysfunctional beliefs and compromised information processing
to reduce the symptoms of social anxiety. Cognitive behavioral therapy is mostly being used to
treat SAD; however, some theorists are against the use of CBT. The results from the study
conducted by different researchers’ shows that CBT is the most suitable treatment strategy.
Social anxiety disorders are the well-known class of mental disorders — recent findings
in psychiatric epidemiology state that women are more likely to contact the disorder than men
throughout the lifespan (Jones et al., 2017).
Diagnostic Criteria
 The patient finds it hard to control the worry
 Worry and anxiety are connected to 3 symptoms which are to be presented for the
last six months. They include fatigue, restlessness, and difficulty concentrating.
 The worry, anxiety, or symptoms cause distress/ impairment in occupational and
social lives
Impact of SAD to:
Individuals:
SAD may lead to work-related matters and financial problems to those with the disorders.
Individuals with SAD will also stop from doing other things in their lives. People with SAD may
also experience the following: Depression, loss of interest in sex, suicidal thoughts, chronic pain
condition, insomnia, and digestive issues.

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Families and friends
Social anxiety Disorder can affect One’s friends and families in some ways: The
symptoms that an individual may experience during SAD such as irritability, poor concentration
and tension will automatically interfere with one’s interpersonal relationships with friends and
family members. The family will not be capable of performing their routine work effectively.
Secondly, in SAD, the function will be impaired by difficulty interacting with different people
and poor concentration. Thirdly, SAD is often co-occurring or comorbid with other different
psychiatric disorders such as depression as well as substance abuse. When an individual has
SAD, the probability of getting the other two disorders is so high. The two disorders also have a
severe impact on functioning and relationships.
The stigma of Social anxiety Disorder
The stigma of mental disorders continues to be an issue that needs to be solved. Its
impact mostly delays the healing process of those who have the illness. It also prevents
individuals who struggle with mental illness from addressing their concerns to other people.
Conclusion
Social anxiety disorders cause tremendous suffering to many people. This paper provided
an overview of the functional purpose and the origin of social anxiety disorder. The social,
psychological, and biological factors that lead to the maintenance and formation of social anxiety
disorders SAD were presented. The theories, social anxiety disorders, as well as associated
treatment were also reviewed.

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References
Amorim-Gaudêncio, C., Roustan, G., & Sirgo, A. (2017). Evaluation of anxiety in chronic
dermatoses: Differences between sexes. Revista Interamericana de
Psicologia/Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 38(1).
Calzada, E., Barajas-Gonzalez, R. G., Huang, K. Y., & Brotman, L. (2017). Early childhood
internalizing problems in Mexican-and Dominican-origin children: The role of cultural
socialization and parenting practices. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent
Psychology, 46(4), 551-562.
Houtkamp, E. O., van der Molen, M. J., de Voogd, E. L., Salemink, E., & Klein, A. M. (2017).
The relation between social anxiety and biased interpretations in adolescents with mild
intellectual disabilities. Research in developmental disabilities, 67, 94-98.
Jones, M. P., Tack, J., Van Oudenhove, L., Walker, M. M., Holtmann, G., Koloski, N. A., &
Talley, N. J. (2017). Mood and anxiety disorders precede development of functional
gastrointestinal disorders in patients but not in the population. Clinical Gastroenterology
and Hepatology, 15(7), 1014-1020.
Lindner, P., Flodin, P., Larm, P., Budhiraja, M., Savic-Berglund, I., Jokinen, J., ... & Hodgins, S.
(2018). Amygdala-orbitofrontal structural and functional connectivity in females with
anxiety disorders, with and without a history of conduct disorder. Scientific reports, 8(1),
1101.
Park, I. J., Wang, L., Williams, D. R., & Alegría, M. (2017). Does anger regulation mediate the
discrimination–mental health link among Mexican-origin adolescents? A longitudinal
mediation analysis using multilevel modeling. Developmental psychology, 53(2), 340.

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Szaflarski, M., Cubbins, L. A., & Meganathan, K. (2017). Anxiety disorders among US
immigrants: the role of immigrant background and social-psychological factors. Issues in
mental health nursing, 38(4), 317-326.
Vigod, S. N., Bagadia, A. J., Hussain-Shamsy, N., Fung, K., Sultana, A., & Dennis, C. L. E.
(2017). Postpartum mental health of immigrant mothers by region of origin, time since
immigration, and refugee status: a population-based study. Archives of women's mental
health, 20(3), 439-447.