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Cited by 33Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesMental Health Research TopicsChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Are people with social anxiety disorder happier alone?

Open access
Goodman, Fallon R., Rum, Ruba, Silva, Gabriella, Kashdan, Todd B.·2021·Journal of Anxiety Disorders
DOI 10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102474PMC PMC9199593
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Abstract

Quality contact with other people serves as a reliable mood enhancement strategy. We wondered if the emotional benefits of socializing are present even for those with a psychological disorder defined by social distress and avoidance: social anxiety disorder (SAD). We conducted two ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies and analyzed 7243 total surveys. In both studies, community adults diagnosed with SAD and healthy controls received five surveys each day for 2 weeks. Consistent with research on positivity deficits in SAD, between-person analyses in both studies suggest that, on average, participants with SAD reported lower positive and higher negative affect in social and non-social situations than healthy controls. Within-person analyses, however, revealed that in both studies participants with SAD and healthy controls reported higher positive affect when with others than when alone; no differences were found for negative affect for those with SAD. The difference in positive affect between social and nonsocial situations was smaller for participants with SAD in Study 1, suggesting that people with SAD may experience diminished reward responding when socializing. Our results suggest that even those with a mental illness defined by interpersonal distress can and do derive positive emotions from social interactions.

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  • The lack of significance for positive affect contradicted many other ambulatory assessment studies that yielded significant between-person associations between lower levels of positive affect and higher levels of negative affect with social anxiety.

    “This lack of significance contradicted many other AA studies that yielded significant between-person associations between lower levels of PA and higher levels of NA with SA [16,20,30,54,57,58,61,69,70].”

    From Studies of Social Anxiety Using Ambulatory Assessment: Systematic Review (2024) · cites this paper as [30]

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  1. Bates D, Sarkar D, Bates MD, & Matrix L (2007). The lme4 package. R package version, 2(1), 1– 29.

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Authors
Goodman, F. R., Rum, R., Silva, G., & Kashdan, T. B.
Affiliations
  • University of South Florida (US)
  • George Mason University (US)
Corresponding author
Goodman, Fallon R.
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-12
Volume
84
Pages
102474
ISSN
0887-6185 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102474
PMC
PMC9199593
OpenAlex
W3198540055
Cited by
33
References
84
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 5
FWCI
5.32
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Anxiety Disorders (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R21-MH073937)
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (F31-AA024372)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
social anxiety disorder, social interaction, positive affect, negative affect, happiness, social distress, social avoidance, mood improvement, interpersonal distress, within-person variability
MeSH terms
Ecological Momentary Assessment, Phobia, Social, Adult, Anxiety, Emotions, Happiness, Humans, Social Behavior

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