Social Anxiety Disorder and Perceived Criticism in Intimate Relationships: Comparisons With Normal and Clinical Control Groups

Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) have difficulties in their romantic relationships, including decreased satisfaction and intimacy, but the reasons for these difficulties are poorly understood. Because fear of negative evaluation is a cardinal feature of SAD, perceived criticism from a romantic partner may play a central role in socially anxious individuals’ relationships. In the present study, we compared levels of perceived, expressed, and observed criticism and reactions to criticism among individuals with SAD and their partners (n = 21), individuals with other anxiety disorders and their partners (n = 35), and couples free of psychopathology (n = 30). Participants rated both global criticism and criticism during a 10-minute problem-solving task, which was also coded for criticism by observers. Individuals with anxiety disorders showed elevated levels of interaction-specific perceived criticism, expressed criticism, and upset and stress due to criticism relative to normal controls; they also reported that the interaction was more stressful. However, there were no group differences on global measures of criticism, and the two anxious groups did not differ on any measures. Findings suggest that the high levels of criticism anxious individuals perceive and their corresponding negative reactions to criticism, though not specific to SAD, may account for some of the relationship difficulties that have been identified in SAD. Results also indicate that anxious individuals may contribute to their relationship difficulties by being highly critical themselves. Overall, our findings point to the need for a clinical focus on decreasing perceived criticism among individuals with anxiety disorders.     

Social Anxiety and Friendship Quality over Time

Abstract

High social anxiety in adults is associated with self-report of impaired friendship quality, but not necessarily with impairment reported by friends. Further, prospective prediction of social anxiety and friendship quality over time has not been tested among adults. We therefore examined friendship quality and social anxiety prospectively in 126 young adults (67 primary participants and 59 friends, aged 17–22 years); the primary participants were screened to be extreme groups to increase power and relevance to clinical samples (i.e., they were recruited based on having very high or very low social interaction anxiety). The prospective relationships between friendship quality and social anxiety were then tested using an Actor–Partner Interdependence Model. Friendship quality prospectively predicted social anxiety over time within each individual in the friendship, such that higher friendship quality at Time 1 predicted lower social anxiety approximately 6 months later at Time 2. Social anxiety did not predict friendship quality. Although the results support the view that social anxiety and friendship quality have an important causal relationship, the results run counter to the assumption that high social anxiety causes poor friendship quality. Interventions to increase friendship quality merit further consideration.     

Surrogacy and the Construction of the Maternal-Foetal Relationship: The Feminist Dilemma Examined

The feminist movement remains fundamentally divided over the issue of surrogacy. Within the confines of this article it is argued that the inadequacy of positions on both sides of the debate rests upon their common tendency to deal with the ethical consequences of surrogacy for isolated agents, without sufficient concern for the broader social implications for all pregnant women in society. In order to clarify the issues involved, feminist theorists must consider the implications of surrogacy in a broader social spectrum. Such an analysis will illustrate that the two-person dichotomous model of the maternal-foetal relationship proposed by the surrogacy arrangement has hugely prejudicial effects on the treatment received by non-contract mothers when they interact with agents of certain social institutions whose prior contact with surrogate mothers has made them more susceptible to conceiving the maternal-foetal relationship as fundamentally disconnected. In a climate of increased medical surveillance and intervention in the non-clinical context of pregnancy, the dangers of adopting this dichotomous model are palpable. Given the oppressive physical and psychological effect that this would have upon the liberty of the majority of pregnant women in society, this article argues that the feminist movement must abandon any promotion of the abstracted model of the mother-foetus relationship that is implicit in its arguments in favour of surrogacy.     

述情障碍与中学生人际关系:有调节的中介模型

为明确述情障碍与中学生人际关系间关系的内在机制,采用中学生人际关系量表、多伦多述情障碍量表、社交焦虑量表及领悟社会支持量表调查了北京市、石家庄市、佳木斯市三所中学7至11年级共998名学生,根据述情障碍的筛查标准,最终获得218份有效数据。结论如下：（1）述情障碍与社交焦虑呈显著正相关,与人际关系、社会支持呈显著负相关;人际关系与社交焦虑呈显著负相关,而与社会支持呈显著正相关;社交焦虑与社会支持呈显著负相关;（2）社交焦虑在述情障碍与中学生人际关系间起中介作用;社会支持在述情障碍与中学生人际关系间起调节作用;（3）\"述情障碍→社交焦虑→中学生人际关系\"这一中介路径的前半段,受到社会支持的调节。与高社会支持个体相比,述情障碍对低社会支持个体的社交焦虑影响更大。     

EQUALITY, FREEDOM, AND/OR JUSTICE FOR ALL: A RESPONSE TO MARTHA NUSSBAUM

Abstract: This essay is a reply to Martha Nussbaum's "Capabilities and Disabilities." It endorses Nussbaum's critique of the social-contract tradition and proposes that it might be productively contrasted with Michael Walzer's critique of John Rawls in Spheres of Justice . It notes that Nussbaum's emphasis on surrogacy and guardianship with regard to people with severe and profound cognitive disabilities poses a challenge to disability studies, insofar as the field tends to emphasize the self-representation of people with disabilities and to concentrate primarily on the aesthetic and political representation of physical disability. The essay concludes with an account of a recent exchange with Peter Singer on the question of our social expectations of people with Down syndrome.     

述情障碍与中学生人际关系:有调节的中介模型

为明确述情障碍与中学生人际关系间关系的内在机制,采用中学生人际关系量表、多伦多述情障碍量表、社交焦虑量表及领悟社会支持量表调查了北京市、石家庄市、佳木斯市三所中学7至11年级共998名学生,根据述情障碍的筛查标准,最终获得218份有效数据。结论如下：（1）述情障碍与社交焦虑呈显著正相关,与人际关系、社会支持呈显著负相关;人际关系与社交焦虑呈显著负相关,而与社会支持呈显著正相关;社交焦虑与社会支持呈显著负相关;（2）社交焦虑在述情障碍与中学生人际关系间起中介作用;社会支持在述情障碍与中学生人际关系间起调节作用;（3）\"述情障碍→社交焦虑→中学生人际关系\"这一中介路径的前半段,受到社会支持的调节。与高社会支持个体相比,述情障碍对低社会支持个体的社交焦虑影响更大。     

催产素与人类社会行为

催产素被喻为爱的荷尔蒙和亲密荷尔蒙。研究者对它的兴趣由其对分娩和哺乳的促进作用转向它对人类社会行为的影响。催产素的常用研究方法包括尿液、血液、脑脊液测量法, 鼻腔喷入法和基因型分析法。催产素对人类社会行为的影响包括社会关系、社会性决策、社会性信息加工、社会性记忆、焦虑等方面。研究者正尝试将催产素应用于孤独症、社交焦虑症、抑郁症、强迫症和精神分裂症等精神疾病的临床治疗上。未来的研究应关注催产素的临床应用、负面作用和神经机制。     

英国代孕规制：历史进展和未解决的问题

英国法律委员会在2023年的报告中提出了代孕规制的“新途径”,对于代孕协议能否强制执行的问题进行了详尽的讨论,并总结出两种可行建议,即代孕协议“规范但不可执行”说或“部分可强制执行”说。但该报告仍未就是否允许商业代孕提出确定建议,需要进一步探讨。基于英国经验,可考虑制定专门的法律法规规制代孕,规定监督机构与管理流程。借鉴代孕有限性合法化模式,排除商业代孕和非生理障碍性代孕。在亲子认定关系问题上,参考英国的“父母令”程序分情况讨论,基因代孕遵循分娩者为母原则,妊娠代孕考虑推定预期父母为合法父母原则。     

The social phobia and social interaction anxiety scales: An exploration of the dimensions of social anxiety and sex differences in structure and relations with pathology

This study sought to provide information on the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) of Mattick and Clarke (1989) with respect to factor structure, relations with psychopathology, and sex differences. A sample of 200 university students completed the SPS and SIAS and various measures of anxiety symptoms and depression. The results from the factor analyses for the sample as a whole suggest the presence of three factors corresponding to scrutiny fears, social interaction anxiety, and a general level of discomfort in social interactions. The results for men replicated this structure. For women, the three-factor solution demonstrated a blurring between the types of anxiety-provoking situations, and a general discomfort in situations involving differences in social power. In general, the discomfort factor was not correlated with measures of pathology, raising the possibility that uneasiness in these situations represents a process that is not part of social anxiety. The distinction between scrutiny fears and social interaction anxiety was also supported by the pattern of partial correlations that suggests that the presence of scrutiny fears is a stronger predictor of psychopathology than is social interaction anxiety, especially for men.     

论代孕亲子关系法律适用的困境与出路——以儿童最佳利益原则为视角

代孕关系是一种互为目的的交换关系,代孕需要伦理提供正当性的辩护和道德支撑。我国虽为禁止代孕的国家,但代孕亲子关系的法律适用困境仍难以破解,其中包括代孕儿童的人格尊严、道德地位以及成长的现实需要等问题直接导致代孕儿童被置于“商品化、无国籍和无父母”的风险之中。联合国《儿童权利公约》已为各国在代孕亲子关系认定问题上,提供了一个共同的伦理原则和法律框架,儿童最佳利益原则不仅为国际合作凝聚共识,还可以作为对代孕儿童进行伦理关怀,以及代孕亲子关系法律适用的基本道德原则。

     

When the heat is on: romantic partner responses influence distress in socially anxious women

This study provided a preliminary test of whether socially anxious women and their partners would show more negative social support behavior, especially among those with low relationship satisfaction, and whether this would increase the distress of the socially anxious women. Women with (n=22) and without (n=23) heightened social anxiety were observed interacting with their partners under a social-evaluative threat and support behaviors were coded. Unexpectedly, no differences were found between socially and non-socially anxious women and their partners. Although relationship satisfaction influenced this process, it was the more satisfied women who showed more negative behavior. Additionally, the more positive behaviors the partner exhibited, the greater was the distress reported by socially anxious women, particularly among women whose partners reported high relationship satisfaction. Implications for how these findings might expand theories on interpersonal processes in social anxiety are discussed.     

Performance and interaction anxiety: specific relationships with other- and self-evaluation concerns

This study examines whether performance anxiety (PA) is specifically associated with other-evaluation concerns and interaction anxiety (IA) with self-evaluation concerns. Individuals with public speaking fears and high levels of PA or IA were distinguishable from nonanxious controls on measures taken during a public speaking challenge. In addition, high PA individuals exhibited more observer-rated negative speech characteristics in an Other-Evaluation condition compared to a Self-Evaluation condition, but high IA individuals and nonanxious individuals did not. These results provide some evidence for the distinctiveness of these dimensions of social anxiety.     

Gender Differences in Social Support for Socially Anxious Individuals

Given that social anxiety disorder is a common, chronic, debilitating disorder and socially anxious women appear to have different experiences related to social development and social support than men, it is essential that the gender differences in social anxiety and social support be understood. The present study examined perceived social support quantity and satisfaction in 23 women and 28 men seeking treatment for social anxiety disorder. Contrary to expectations, men and women did not differ on measures of social support. However, younger, unmarried women reported having smaller social support networks and less satisfaction with their social support networks than older, married women. Analyses of socially anxious men did not reveal such a pattern. The current study provides preliminary evidence that younger, single women have social support networks that are less satisfying than the social support networks of older, married women. Inclusion of social support modules within a cognitive behavioral treatment approach for social anxiety disorder may be warranted, particularly for young, unmarried women.     

社会比较对大学生社交焦虑影响的研究

西方社会比较对自我产生的效应的研究近期以来得到了较为广泛的研究,而本研究则探讨了在东方背景下社会比较对自我是否也产生相似的效应,并进一步探讨了在自尊、比较方向(向上比较和向下比较)因素调节下,比较类型(内隐和外显社会比较)对我国大学生社交焦虑产生的影响。结果表明,自尊、比较方向和比较类型对社交焦虑的主效应均不显著,但三因素交互作用显著。通过进一步的简单效应分析,我们可以得出如下结论:内隐社会比较与外显社会比较对我国大学生社交焦虑会产生不同的影响,并受自尊与比较方向的调节。