The observer perspective : its role in the maintenance of social phobia and social anxiety

Social phobia is a common and disabling disorder. The cognitive model of social phobia by D.M. Clark and A. Wells (1995) proposes four maintenance factors for social anxiety. One of these factors involves the construction of an impression of the self as a social object using interoceptive information, which can be formed into a visual image of self, seen as if from another person's viewpoint. This image is usually negative, and thus maintains anxiety. Evidence exists that the observer perspective is used more by socially anxious individuals, but there is no clear evidence for its effects on thinking, anxiety, behaviour and social performance. Theory and evidence from the social psychological literature on self-focused attention suggest that the observer perspective, itself a form of self-focused attention, would impact negatively on these factors. The current study tested the effects of the observer perspective in an experimental situation. The results indicate that high socially anxious individuals were negatively affected by the observer perspective in comparison to its opposite, the field perspective, supporting the proposition of Clark and Wells (1995) that it contains distorted negative information. Low socially anxious individuals, contrary to the predictions of this study, were unaffected by the observer perspective. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.