Social anxiety and dysfunctional cognitive schemas

This study assessed the association between cognitive schemas (Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form, YSQ-SF; Young & Brown, 1994) and social anxiety (Social Interaction Questionnaire for Adults-Revised, CISO-AR; Caballo, et al., 2006) in a sample of 639 students (309 men and 327 women). The following findings were obtained: (1) Social anxiety is mainly associated with schemas that involve abandonment, failure, and emotional inhibition. (2) There are some peculiarities depending on the situation in which the individuals experienced anxiety, with the schema of subjugation linked with anxiety in situations that imply the expression of upset, and the defectiveness/shame schema linked to anxiety in the relationship with people of different sex. (3) Participants who showed generalized social anxiety scored higher than participants with specific social anxiety in abandonment, defectiveness, failure, dependency, emotional inhibition, and lack of self-control. (4) Finally, although women scored higher on social anxiety, we did not find gender differences in the relationship between schemas and social anxiety, with the exception of abandonment and subjugation which were more intensively associated with anxiety among men.