My name's Jasper and I'm a Sagittarius: threat, social anxiety and their impact on making a personal introduction videotape

Abstract

This experimental study examined the relative impact of specific sources of potential threat (feedback about heart rate, degree of task structure)and social anxiety on responses to an ecologically valid impression management stressor, the making of a personal introduction videotape. Forty-one socially anxious and 46 less socially anxious university students were randomly assigned to higher and lower threat conditions prior to making their videotapes and completed measures of appraisal and self-statements before and after confronting the stressor. Main effects of threat manipulations and social anxiety on selfreports and global behavior ratings were largely consistent with expectations, but socially anxious individuals (SAls) in the higher threat condition (i.e., those given heart rate feedback suggesting anxiety and less structure to prepare their introductions) were more likely to appraise the task as threatening than socially anxious and less anxious participants in other conditions. SAls in the higher threat condition also reported significantly fewer positive self statements in coping, and had a more protective orientation after the task than SAls in the lower threat condition who were indistinguishable from less anxious subgroups on these measures. Together, findings suggest SAls may be more sensitive than less anxious persons to effects of internal and external sources of potential threat in impression management situations and that relatively superficial interventions designed to reduce task ambiguity may benefit the more socially anxious.