Quaderno di esercizi per vincere l'ansia sociale

The book offers people who suffer from social anxiety a 10-step self-help path complete with exercises, questionnaires and activities to do to learn how to manage anxiety, live in a peaceful and balanced way and overcome the fear of judgment by the others

Vincere l’Ansia Sociale: strumenti e tecniche

L’ansia sociale è un disturbo piuttosto invalidante che genera molta sofferenza, nonché importanti ripercussioni negative sul funzionamento individuale e relazionale (Stein, 2017). I classici trattamenti evidence-based (Terapia Cognitiva Comportamentale) del Disturbo d'Ansia Sociale (SAD) sono oggi integrati con strategie terapeutiche più recenti (e.g., Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) (Pelissolo et al., 2019). Nel presente contributo verrà presentato un percorso terapeutico, derivato dal modello cognitivo-comportamentale standard con integrazione di elementi derivati dagli approcci cognitivo-comportamentali di terza generazione. Il trattamento si compone di due sezioni. La prima descrive in modo sintetico ma efficace quali sono le manifestazioni (cognitive e fisiche) dell’ansia sociale e le sue cause, riconducibili, dal punto di vista evoluzionistico, a un istinto primitivo di sopravvivenza e di ricerca di accettazione da parte del gruppo. Nella seconda sezione, viene presentato un percorso di intervento articolato in 10 step: misurare l’ansia sociale; rilassare mente e corpo; confrontare aspettative e realtà; osservare pensieri ed emozioni; mettere in discussione i propri pensieri e le proprie credenze; limitare inferenze e supposizioni; confrontarsi con le proprie paure; imparare ad essere assertivi e infine gestire la prevenzione delle ricadute. Il trattamento integrato proposto può essere utile per ristrutturare i pensieri negativi che favoriscono l’ansia, ma soprattutto per aiutare l’individuo ad ampliare il proprio repertorio di strategie di coping, riducendo così gradualmente il disagio che la persona prova in situazioni sociali

Exploring the links between narcissistic personality traits and social anxiety: a cluster analysis approach

INTRODUCTION The literature on the effectiveness of treatments for social anxiety shows very high rates of non-responders that may represent a subgroup of people for whom standard Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is not effective (e.g., Davidson et al., 2004; McCarthy et al., 2013). According to the recent revision of the narcissism construct (Pincus et al., 2014), which proposes the distinction between two phenotypes, i.e. grandiose and vulnerable, it is possible to highlight some similarities between people with high levels of social anxiety and people with vulnerable narcissistic traits. One above all is the fact that, in both cases, self-esteem is sensitive to social interactions (Hiller et al., 2017; Miller et al., 2010). These findings suggest the importance of exploring the links between narcissistic personality traits, such as Oversensitivity to Judgement and Egocentrism, and social anxiety to improve treatments efficacy. The present exploratory study aims to investigate the relationships between personality traits, self-esteem, and social anxiety in a sample recruited from the general population. METHOD An online questionnaire, consisting of Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS; Hendin & Cheek, 1997), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965), and Social Phobia Scale (SPS; Mattick & Clarke, 1998), was administered to 236 people (mean age = 34.4, SD = 8.73). A two-step cluster analysis was performed to explore subgroups in terms of Social Anxiety, Self-esteem, Oversensitivity to Judgement, and Egocentrism. One-Way ANOVAs with Scheffé’s post-hoc tests were performed to assess differences among clusters. RESULTS Cluster analysis and ANOVAs results supported a 4-cluster solution. The first cluster, labeled “Healthy” (n = 79), was characterized by low social anxiety and vulnerable traits, and high self-esteem. The second, labeled “Socially Anxious” (n = 82), was characterized by high levels of social anxiety and oversensitivity to judgment, low levels of egocentrism and self-esteem. The third, labeled “High Inhibited Narcissists” (n = 38), was characterized by high levels of social anxiety, oversensitivity to judgment and egocentrism, and low self-esteem. The last, labeled “Low Inhibited Narcissists” (n = 37), was characterized by a low social anxiety, medium oversensitivity to judgment, and a high egocentrism and self-esteem. The cluster labels have been attributed considering personality traits and they are inspired by a previous study (i.e., Fossati et al., 2009) DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Overall, the present study underlines how some personality traits linked to vulnerable narcissistic phenotype are associated with a higher level of social anxiety. These results may suggest that some non-respondent socially anxious patients might have undiagnosed narcissistic personality traits that need to be addressed. As regard practical implications, the present study might be useful for the implementation of more structured and individualized CBT interventions

Measurement invariance of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale‐Self‐Report

Objective: The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale‐Self Report (LSAS‐SR) is a self‐report measure of social anxiety (SA), which has shown adequate psychometric properties across cultures. However, no study has systematically evaluated its measurement invariance (MI) between (a) individuals with and without a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and (b) males and females. The current study addresses this issue. Methods: We collected data on 257 (158 females) Italian individuals diagnosed with SAD and 356 (232 females) community‐dwelling adults. Results: We initially found support for the unidimensionality of the Italian LSAS‐SR measurement model in all samples. Using the Graded Response Model, we obtained evidence of partial MI and differential item functioning between community‐dwelling and SAD diagnosed individuals and evidence of strong MI between male and female participants. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the Italian LSAS‐SR measures the same trait in the same way across the symptom continuum and sexes, making it a psychometrically sound tool for assessment, screening, and research purposes