Social Anxiety: Clinical, Developmental, and Social Perspectives

Social Anxiety Clinical, Developmental, and Social Perspectives, Second Edition, provides an interdisciplinary approach to understanding social anxiety disorder (SAD) by bringing together research across several disciplines, including social psychology, developmental psychology, behavior genetics, and clinical psychology. The book explains the different aspects of social anxiety and social phobia in adults and children, including the evolution of terminology and constructs, assessment procedures, relationship to personality disorders, and psychopathology. It considers most prominent theoretical perspectives on social anxiety and SAD discussed by social psychologists, developmental psychologists, behavior geneticists, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists. These theoretical perspectives emphasize different factors that can contribute to the etiology and/or maintenance of social anxiety/SAD. Treatment approaches are also discussed, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure intervention, social skills training. The contents of this volume represent some of the best views and thoughts in the field. It is hoped that the breadth of perspectives offered will help foster continued interdisciplinary dialogue and efforts toward cross-fertilization to advance the understanding, conceptualization, and treatment of chronic and debilitating social anxiety.- The most comprehensive source of up-to-date data, with review articles covering a thorough deliniation of social anxiety, theoretical perspectives, and treatment approaches- Consolidates broadly distributed literature into single source, saving researchers and clinicians time in obtaining and translating information and improving the level of further research and care they can provide- Each chapter is written by an expert in the topic area- Provides more fully vetted expert knowledge than any existing work- Integrates findings from various disciplines - clinical, social and developmental psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, - rather than focusing on only one conceptual perspective- Provides the reader with more complete understanding of a complex phenomena, giving researchers and clinicians alike a better set of tool for furthering what we know- Offers coverage of essential topics on which competing books fail to focus, such as: related disorders of adult and childhood; the relationship to social competence, assertiveness and perfectionism; social skills deficit hypothesis; comparison between pharmacological and psychosocial treatments; and potential mediators of change in the treatment of social anxiety disorder population

About the Author

Associate Professor of Psychology Patricia M. DiBartolo works at Smith College in Northampton MA, USA.

Stefan G. Hofmann is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Psychotherapy and Emotion Research Laboratory at Boston University. Dr. Hofmann has served as President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the International Association for Cognitive Psychotherapy. His research focuses on the mechanism of treatment change, translating discoveries from neuroscience into clinical applications, emotions, and cultural expressions of psychopathology.