Bivalent Fears of Evaluation in Social Anxiety: Evaluation of an Extended Psychoevolutionary Model.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional survey and structural equation modelling study (CEBM Level 4 by design analogy).
PubMed 39590028 · doi:10.3390/ejihpe14110191
What was done
Structural equation modelling was used to evaluate an extended bivalent psychoevolutionary model of social anxiety disorder in a cross-sectional sample of 890 university students (74.8% female, mean age 29.49 years). The model tested whether concerns about reprisal and discounting of positive outcomes act as serial mediators between fears of negative or positive evaluation and social anxiety across subgroups with and without probable social anxiety disorder.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical coefficients, effect sizes, or fit indices. Qualitatively, the extended model was replicated in the overall sample and the probable social anxiety disorder group: fears of negative and positive evaluation directly predicted social anxiety and were serially mediated by reprisal concerns and discounting of positive outcomes. In participants without probable social anxiety disorder, fear of negative evaluation ceased to be a direct predictor of social anxiety.
Why it matters
The findings support an extended bivalent evaluation framework for social anxiety, indicating that cognitive processes related to both positive and negative evaluations contribute to social anxiety symptoms.
Limits
The design is cross-sectional, precluding causal inference for the mediation pathways. The sample was restricted to university students with a high proportion of female participants (74.8%), and no numerical estimates or confidence intervals are provided in the abstract.
Cited by
- context The fear of public speaking has an evolutionary basis stemming from ancestral groups of about 150 people where relative social status dictated access to resources, food, shelter, and reproduction.