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Clinical practice

A Cognitive Model of Social Phobia

Clark & Wells (1995) · In Heimberg et al. (eds), Social Phobia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Treatment

We use this paper in 21 places in the academy

We do not have a permanent link for this paper. You can find it by searching for the reference above. If you have a permanent link, send it to us and we will add it.

What the study found

The leading model of social anxiety says that watching yourself keeps the anxiety going. When you monitor how you are coming across, you perform worse and feel more judged.

Socially anxious people judge how they are coming across by how they feel inside, not by how others react. That is why a pause feels terrible to you and ordinary to everyone else.

Over-explaining and softening are common safety behaviours. People use them to avoid embarrassment, but they keep the anxiety going and draw attention to it.

Rushing away is a safety behaviour. It brings relief now and makes the fear stronger next time.

See 11 more ways we describe the same finding

Moving your attention outward, away from watching yourself, is one of the things that makes cognitive therapy for social anxiety work.

Writing a thought down in specific words is the first step of a thought record. A vague fear is hard to examine. A specific belief is easier.

Finding and testing your negative thoughts about social situations is a central part of cognitive therapy for social anxiety. That therapy has the strongest evidence of any psychological treatment for it.

Writing a second, fairer account is a standard technique in cognitive therapy. The aim is not comfort. The aim is to read the same facts a second way.

Separating an event from a general judgement about a person is the same step as naming the thinking pattern in Topic 05. Here you apply it to someone else.

Bringing a threat down to its real size is the same step as naming the thinking pattern in Topic 05. Here you apply it to a conflict.

Watching your own behaviour and keeping written records are the basic tools of cognitive therapy. A social memory that you never examine slowly changes into the version that confirms what you already fear.

In the standard model of social anxiety, rushing through the moment you fear is a safety behaviour. It lowers the fear now and keeps it alive for next time. It also turns your attention onto yourself at the moment it should be on the room.

In the standard model of social anxiety, physical symptoms and watching yourself make each other worse. Your attention turns to how you are coming across, and that makes you come across worse.

Finding your negative thoughts about a social event, and writing a second account of the same event, is central to cognitive therapy for social anxiety. It is the psychological treatment with the best evidence.

In the standard model of social anxiety, avoiding the moment you fear is a safety behaviour. It lowers the fear now and keeps it alive for next time. It also turns your attention onto yourself at the moment it should be on the other person.

What the study cannot prove

This is a theory, not an experiment. It summarises what clinicians saw, and it has shaped the treatment of social anxiety ever since. The paper does not test each part of the theory separately. It was written about diagnosed social phobia, and we apply it to ordinary shyness.

Where we use it

We use this paper in 21 places in the academy. If the paper turned out to be wrong, we would have to change everything in this list. Some of the exercise instructions below are part of Gold. You can read every finding for free.

In the topics · 13

Topic 01 · First Contact

03 — Open on the room, not the person

Topic 02 · Conversation Craft

06 — Let three seconds pass

Topic 03 · Desire & Restraint

02 — Do not fill the gap

Topic 03 · Desire & Restraint

08 — The unhurried goodbye

Topic 03 · Desire & Restraint

09 — Catch the moment you start performing

Topic 04 · Out of the Friendzone

01 — Write down what you actually want

Topic 05 · Rejection Immunity

03 — Name the distortion within the hour

Topic 05 · Rejection Immunity

07 — Write the friend's version

Topic 06 · The Long Devotion

08 — Name the pattern, not the person

Topic 08 · Disagreeing Well

09 — Name the disagreement's size

Topic 09 · The Casanova Method

10 — Four sentences, tonight

Topic 10 · The Monroe Method

01 — The threshold pause

Topic 13 · How You Sound

01 — Take the breath first

Other papers used in the same places

These papers are used in the same topics and videos as this one. That does not mean the papers agree with each other. It only means that the same exercises use both.

Clinical practice

A standard method that therapists use for fear. This is not therapy. It uses the same tools for everyday shyness.

You are free to read, link to and quote this page. If we claim more than this paper shows, please tell us at contact@suaviq.com. We read every correction, and corrections help us more than any other email.