Cognitive factors in social anxiety and its treatment

The evidence for the skills deficit and response inhibition models of social anxiety is reviewed. Evidence inconsistent with both hypotheses suggests that social anxiety may be better considered from a cognitive-behavioural perspective. There is already evidence that socially anxious patients underestimate their ability to deal with socially threatening situations. In this study it was demonstrated that, compared with matched control subjects, such patients overestimate the probability that unpleasant social events will occur in the first place, and that cognitively oriented treatment produced specific changes in this appraisal.