However, they did not differentiate for specific social fears or social situations. Bögels et al concluded that blushing is a physical, maybe even unique, sign of SA disorder compared with other anxieties. With regard to cognitions, Knappe et al found that fear of taking tests was negatively associated with socially phobic cognitions like “something embarrassing or shameful could happen”, “to be ashamed” and “to blush”, whereas there was a positive association between catastrophic anxiety cognitions and the majority of social fears. Accordingly, trigger events may be particularly relevant for TA, whereas for SA, only few of those affected recall a specific event as origin of their fear. Some facets of TA and SA have been explored so far: Sarason hypothesized, that some type of TA is triggered by “quite specific unfortunate experiences, e.g., a traumatizing teacher in the third grade”. To better understand the relationship of TA and SA, this study aims to explore similarities and differences in written and oral exams, as well as similarities and differences between both forms of TA and SA. Findings suggest that TA might be meaningfully distinguished from SA, and question whether TA is in fact part of the SA spectrum or if it should be better classified as a specific fear or phobia.ĭespite efforts to better understand the relationship of TA and SA disorder, little attention has been paid to the fact that TA can occur in oral and written exams and that these two types of situations imply differing cues for anxiety reactions: A convenience sample of college students preferred written exams over oral exams, probably because social interaction is limited in written exams, whereas oral exams demand both performance and social interaction skills. For example, in a community sample of adolescents and young adults, isolated social fears in test situations were unrelated to catastrophic social anxious cognitions, but associated with significant avoidance (though not with moderate/severe impairment), lower comorbidity, behavioral inhibition, and parental psychopathology as compared to respondents with other performance or interaction related social fears. Results of Hall and Knappe et al pointed to notable differences between fear of public speaking and test anxiety (TA) on the one hand, and other social fears and SA disorder on the other, namely in terms of age of onset, social anxious cognitions, physical symptoms and increase of self-reported anxiety levels over time. Broadly, the diagnostic category of SA disorder represents a multi-faceted phenomenon, that spans from more or less isolated social fears to severe anxiety in social situations related to interactions with others and performance in public. The aim of a deepened understanding of social anxiety (SA) disorder, its putative subtypes and differentiation from other mental disorders has stimulated research in the last decade, e.g., on the relationship of public speaking anxiety with other facets of SA disorder.
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