Abstract

This study examined the characterisitcs of social self-processing in social phobics. The hypothesis was that social phobics use the interoceptive information produced by self-focus to construct an impression of themselves that they assume reflects what other people actually observe. 15 social phobics and 15 non-social phobics were asked to present a brief, impromptu speech while being videotaped. After the speech, they rated how anxious they felt, how anxious they thought they appeared, and observers rated how anxious they appeared via video. The results showed that social phobics' ratings of how anxious they felt and how anxious they thought they appeared did not differ while these two ratings were higher than observers' ratings. On the other hand, non-social phobics' ratings and observers' ratings did not differ significantly. These results suggest that social phobics construct social impression of themselves using the interoceptive information, thereby their social impressions are distorted and different from what other people observe. Finally, the limitations of this study and suggestoins for the future study were discussed.