UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
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Item SOCIAL SKILLS DEFICIT VERSUS PERFORMANCE INHIBITION IN SOCIALLY ANXIOUS INDIVIDUALS(2005-11-07) Stipelman, Brooke Allison; Beidel, Deborah C; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study attempted to address the performance inhibition hypothesis by assessing nonverbal social performance in socially anxious individuals during a task where verbal content was standardized, thereby decreasing the overall performance requirements, thus theoretically decreasing their social distress. Fifty-nine subjects were identified as high or low socially anxious and participated in two behavioral role-play tasks. Both role-plays included a standard heterosocial conversation task; however during the second task subjects were provided their verbal content through a bug-in-the-ear wireless transmitter. Results showed no significant within or between-group differences on measures of nonverbal social skill. However, a global rating of social skill revealed a significant group difference. These results do not support the performance inhibition hypothesis and support the notion that isolated behaviors aren't enough to distinguish socially anxious and non-socially anxious individuals from one another. Rather, it's the unique combination of all elements of social skill that allows for this differentiation.Item DOES NEGATIVE SELF-IMAGERY PLAY A CAUSAL ROLE IN SOCIAL PHOBIA AMONG ADOLESCENTS?(2005-04-20) Alfano, Candice Ann; Beidel, Deborah C; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current study was designed to examine whether negative self-imagery is a significant factor in the development of social phobia among adolescents. Although some adult models of social phobia posit that negative self-imagery serves to increase anxiety and decrease performance within social contexts, few studies have directly examined this relationship and no study has examined self-imagery among socially-phobic adolescents. For the current study, negative self-imagery was manipulated among a group of non-anxious adolescents (IMAG) during two social tasks. Levels of anxiety, specific thoughts, expected and self-rated performance, and observer-rated performance and social skill were compared to both socially-phobic and control adolescents. Results revealed few differences in terms of observer-rated performance and specific social skill between the IMAG and control groups of adolescents, although the socially-phobic group was consistently rated to exhibit poorer performances and decreased social skill. The IMAG group reported marginally significant increases in their anxiety levels during both social tasks. Interestingly, these adolescents reported similar (increased) rates of anxiety during an additional social interaction task where they were instructed to use positive self-imagery. The IMAG group also reported decreases in performance compared to the control group. This finding appears to be explained primarily based on the adolescents' belief that they were unable to hide their anxiety rather than a decrease in social skill (such as reported by socially-phobic youth). Further, the IMAG group reported an overall fewer number of cognitions than both groups during the social interaction task, potentially indicating a significant decrease in cognitive resources based on the use of self-imagery. Overall findings from this investigation do not support the hypothesis that negative self-imagery plays a causal role in the development of social phobia among adolescents. Rather, results indicate that excessive self-focused attention within social contexts, together with normal developmental increases in self-consciousness during the adolescent years may pose a specific risk for development of the syndrome. These findings provide a developmental understanding of the factors involved in the onset of social phobia, as well as those symptoms that may be germane to the maintenance of the disorder over time.Item Is Test Anxiety A Form Of Specific Social Phobia?(2005-05-26) Hall Brown, Tyish S; Turner, Samuel M; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Test anxiety is characterized by a fear of negative evaluation, specifically in academic domains. This evaluative fear is often driven by social concerns that are consistent with those that are found in individuals with social phobia. The current study was designed to determine if test anxiety is a type of specific social phobia. 57 subjects completed a battery of self-report measures, underwent a semi-structured interview, and participated in a behavioral assessment task. Results showed that test anxious individuals were similar to socially phobic individuals in personality characteristics, in subjective ratings of anxiety as well as in the prevalence of feared situations. However, despite these similarities test anxious individuals did not show significant functional impairment during the behavioral assessment task as evaluated through level of performance, number of negative cognitions, and psychophysiological reactivity. Based on these results, test anxiety cannot be considered a type of specific social phobia.Item Differentiating Social Phobia from Shyness(2004-11-22) Heiser, Nancy; Turner, Samuel M; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Objectives: This study aimed to clarify the boundaries of social phobia and the nature of shyness. Despite the similarities between social phobia and shyness, the vast majority of shy persons do not meet diagnostic criteria for social phobia. Conversely, most persons with social phobia, specifically the generalized subtype, are shy. This study sought to identify factors that delineate generalized social phobia from shyness. Methods: Of the 78 participants, 25 were shy with social phobia, 26 were shy without social phobia, and 27 were not shy. The groups were compared on self-reported symptomatology and indicators of functioning. Social skills were assessed via unstructured social interactions and an impromptu speech task during which heart rate and skin conductance were monitored. Performance and anxiety were rated by participants and independent observers. Results: All symptoms were more prevalent among the shy with social phobia than the shy without social phobia. Almost 40% of the shy without social phobia did not endorse social fears per se, even though they reported high levels of shyness. Those with social phobia reported higher levels of impairment and lower levels of quality of life compared to the shy without social phobia. Both the shy and social phobia groups reported similar levels of anticipatory anxiety prior to the social tasks; however, the social phobia group reported relatively elevated levels of anxiety during the social tasks. Those with social phobia demonstrated social skills deficits across tasks, whereas the shy did so only in the unstructured social tasks. Both groups underestimated their effectiveness during the speech relative to independent observers. None of the three groups differed on the physiological measures. Conclusions: The findings indicated that shyness is a broader construct than social phobia. Some subsets of the shy group appeared to be more qualitatively similar to the social phobia group than others. Those with social phobia appeared to experience more anxiety and exhibit more social skills deficits during the social interactions than the shy without social phobia, which may account for the higher levels of impairment they reported. The results are discussed in the context of current theoretical models of social phobia.Item Basic Psychometric Properties of the Child Social Functioning Inventory (CSFI)(2004-08-04) Ferrell, Courtney; Beidel, Deborah C.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)To date, interventions for childhood social phobia have examined outcome primarily in terms of symptomatic reduction or efficacy. Although more emphasis is being placed on reporting clinically relevant outcome, few studies have provided a systematic assessment of treatment effectiveness, perhaps due to a lack of an appropriate assessment inventory. The current study presents the initial psychometric characteristics of the Child Social Functioning Inventory (CSFI), a self-report inventory designed to assess social functioning of preadolescent children. The CSFI contains 24 items with a 6-factor structure. The results indicate that the CSFI has good internal consistency and adequate test-retest reliability. In addition, assessment of the construct validity, including concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity suggest that the CSFI is a valid inventory of social functioning for children ages 10 or above. Implications for assessment and treatment outcome are discussed.