Social phobia also called social anxiety is an intense fear of being judged, criticized or rejected in social situations. The social phobia test and social anxiety test are similar. If you can associate yourself within this article you will get a clear concept about social phobia.
Are You Afraid Of Being Judged By Others?
Scientists have found by Social Phobia Test that people who suffer from social phobia respond in a different way to negative comments about themselves than other people do.
What characterizes this phobia is fearing and avoiding social situations, and fearing being judged negatively by other people, the authors say. It is without a doubt the most frequent anxiety disorder among the general population.
If you have social phobia there’s also a higher risk for depression and other forms of self-destructive behaviors. Social interaction is the best procedure to get a good feeling. We need a social network to function properly as human beings.
Panic Attack Symptoms and Overcoming Anxiety
Studies have shown that persons with phobia tend to have increased emotional responsiveness to social interactions.
This research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry (Oct 2008) was done using brain imaging technology, also known as MRI.
How This Study Was Made to Create Social Phobia Test
This study was carried out by doing fMRI-brain scans.
First, they scanned the brains of 17 individuals who were socially phobic but wasn’t taking any medication. And then they compared those to an equal number of control subjects who were of the same age, sex, and IQ, but who did not have any social phobia.
The brain scans were taken while the test subject read various statements – positive, negative or neutral. “You are valuable to me and our family”, might be an example of a positive statement. “You look awful” – negative. “You are human” – neutral. The statements could refer either to themselves or someone else, for example, “She is beautiful”.
What Did The Social Phobia Test Show?
When people with a social anxiety disorder (phobia) read negative comments about themselves you could see the blood flow to the amygdala and prefrontal cortex increase. These are parts of the brain that are associated with a person’s self-concept but also fear, fight-or-flight emotions and stress.
The authors’ conclusion was that the medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala, in connection with each other, might play a crucial role in the development of a generalized social phobia.
So having a negative attitude toward yourself can contribute to social phobia.