Social Anxiety, Worry, and Intolerance of Uncertainty

Abstract

Numerous cognitive aspects of social anxiety have been examined. For example, the Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) has been incorporated into the cognitive-behavioral model of Social Anxiety (Rapee & Heimberg, 1997), and more recently the Fear of Positive Evaluation (FPE) has received great interest (c.f., Weeks et al., 2008). Other relevant cognitive aspects of social anxiety have received less attention. Of interest, intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is highly related to worry but also to social anxiety (e.g., Boelen & Reijntjes, 2009; Dugas et al., 2001). However, no research, to our knowledge, has examined whether social anxiety or worry accounts for more variance in IU. The potential links of FNE and FPE to IU have not been explored to our knowledge, despite the overlap between these variables; for example, fear of evaluation adds an element of uncertainty to social interactions, and uncertainty often contains aspects of evaluation. Thus, this study examined how the relationship between social anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty may be related to FNE and FPE. This study also examined how the relationship between worry and intolerance of uncertainty may be mediated by FNE and FPE. The result showed that worry and social anxiety were positively correlated with IU. As predicted, social anxiety accounted for IU above and beyond worry. FNE and FPE were positively related to IU. Maladaptive perfectionism and its subscales were positively correlated with social anxiety. FNE mediated the relationship between worry and IU, social anxiety and IU, and maladaptive perfectionism and social anxiety. However, FPE did not mediate the relationship between worry and IU, and social anxiety and IU.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	Eastern Illinois University
Supervisor	Wesley Allan (Supervisor)