Citation

Weeks JW, Menatti AR, Howell AN. J. Anxiety Disord. 2015; 36: 33-43.

Affiliation

Center for Evaluation and Treatment of Anxiety, Department of Psychology, Ohio University, 200 Porter Hall, Athens, OH, 45701, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.janxdis.2015.06.008

PMID

26414155

Abstract

Fear of positive evaluation (FPE) has been proposed to be an important feature of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and to be rooted, at least partly, in concerns of social reprisal due to positive impressions. In order to formally test this hypothesis, the Concerns of Social Reprisal Scale (CSRS) was developed. The purpose of the present series of studies was to examine the psychometric profile of the CSRS across several independent samples including: a large (n=981) undergraduate sample; a clinical sample of individuals diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (n=27), and a demographically-matched subsample of healthy control participants (n=24). The factorial validity, internal consistency, and construct validity of the CSRS were examined.

RESULTS across both studies provided support for the psychometric profile of the CSRS. The implications of concerns of social reprisal for the assessment of social anxiety symptoms, theoretical models of fear of evaluation and SAD, and their potential clinical utility with regard to treating SAD are discussed.

Language: en