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Relationship between social anxiety disorder and career type

Social Anxiety Disorder, formerly known as Social Phobia, can be briefly classified as the fear of being scrutinized or rejected by others (Havranek et al., 2017). This instills an additional fear of social situations and the tendency to withdraw from said situations. This occurs regardless whether the irrationality of this fear is conscious or not (Havranek et al., 2017). In addition, it is globally the most common form of anxiety and is the fourth most prevalent of all disorders (William & Bates, 2011). In spite of this, this specific disorder contains an overwhelming lack of research when compared to other disorders of similar prevalence (Teo, Lerrigo, & Rogers, 2013). Though it has been found that isolative tendencies are an important facet of Social Anxiety Disorder, the impact of these tendencies have not been focused on until recently, when Teo et al. (2013) conducted a meta-analysis partially discussing this subject. Furthermore, there is a massive gap in research focusing on the relationship between Social Anxiety Disorder and the distribution of those with this disorder in the workforce industry. This could lead to issues because these isolative tendencies could be dangerous or related to a lower level of life satisfaction (Simon, Judge, & Halvorsen-Ganepola, 2010, Teo et al., 2013). In this study, Social Anxiety Disorder will be operationalized by an Implicit Association Test and isolation will be operationalized by the amount of interaction experienced or lack thereof in three workplace subgroups.

Research (Horley, Williams, Gonsalvez, & Gordon, 2004) supports that those with Social Anxiety Disorder are not only avoidant of verbal interpersonal interactions; this avoidance also applies to the nonverbal. Horley et al. (2004) found that nonverbal interaction as simple as eye contact elicits fear in these individuals and that they often avoid it. In this study, Horley et al. (2004) found that participants with Social Anxiety Disorder showed a greater reduction of fixation on the face and eyes than the control groups across every emotion exhibited in these faces. These subjects exhibited both fewer fixations and fixated for shorter amounts of time than the control group. Instead, subjects with this disorder exhibited hypervigilance and tended to scan the faces, regardless of emotion presented (Horley et al., 2004). This research (Horley et al., 2004) shows that Social Anxiety Disorder disturbs interactions of all sorts. If the disturbance is this severe, one must consider the likelihood that someone with this disorder would choose a career with fewer encounters in order to avoid the intense nervousness they feel in each one.

Research has also shown (Havranek et al., 2017) that Social Anxiety Disorder is a strong predictor of gelotophobia, also known as the fear of being laughed at and being perceived as ridiculous by others. Havranek et al. (2017) found when looking at the prevalence of gelotophobia in patients with Social Anxiety Disorder and Avoidant Personality Disorder that no patients who were diagnosed with both of these disorders were not suffering from gelotophobia, as well.  This research supports the research question because gelotophobia also facilitates isolation (Havranek et al., 2017). It should be considered that those who sustain such an intense fear of being deemed ridiculous may avoid a career that encourages interaction with numerous colleagues because that would increase the risk of being judged in this way.

This research question is an important one because one could argue that feeding into the antisocial tendencies of Social Anxiety Disorder could be incredibly dangerous. In the same meta-analysis conducted by Teo et al. (2013), it was discussed that social isolation, though fairly common, is a risk factor for self-deprecating behaviors such as smoking. However, social isolation is also a risk factor for violence toward others and is commonly found as a factor when investigating school shootings (Teo et al., 2013). It could be somewhat dangerous, therefore, for patients with Social Anxiety Disorder to commit to a lifestyle that allows them to succumb to their isolative tendencies on a daily basis. Therefore, investigating this research question could be the first step in bridging a gap in the research of workplace studies among those with Social Anxiety Disorder and lead to further research confirming the safety of the isolative tendencies common among this population.

This research question is also important in terms of job satisfaction. Herpertz-Dahlmann, Buhren, and Remschmidt (2013) reviewed a number of studies, one of which reporting that 19% of all adolescents have some sort of anxiety disorder. Furthermore, current research (Havranek et al., 2017) states that only 30%-40% of individuals suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder are helped by current treatments. This research makes it very plausible that hypothetically these issues in adolescents could carry over into adulthood and into the workplace (Havranek et al., 2017). Simon et al. (2010) found that coworker satisfaction is positively correlated with job satisfaction and that both coworker and job satisfaction are correlated with overall life satisfaction. If this fraction of teenagers who are seeking career options to enter the workforce are still experiencing isolative tendencies due to ineffective treatment, they may enter the career force with a more isolating career in mind. In jobs like these, there is little to no coworker satisfaction to be had. Based on the current research (Simon et al., 2010), this could, in turn, predict a lower level of life satisfaction.

In this study, the predictor variable will be the presence of Social Anxiety Disorder and the outcome variable will be how much interaction people experienced in their workplace. If the presence of Social Anxiety Disorder is related to the type of career people seek, those who have higher levels of social anxiety would seek more isolating jobs than those with lower levels of social anxiety. To test my hypothesis, I will break the workforce industry into three subgroups, one representing a high-interaction workplace, one representing a workplace in which employees are very isolated, and one that represents a workplace with an average/medium amount of interaction. Five companies will then be randomly selected from each subgroup, followed by the random selection of 100 individuals from each company. Each participant will receive an implicit association test in the form of a questionnaire designed to determine whether the individuals are high in facets of Social Anxiety Disorder. Some of the questions will be reverse-worded in order to prevent acquiescence and there will also be multiple forms of the survey in which the questions are in different orders to avoid order effects.

The lack of research about Social Anxiety Disorder in the workforce industry itself is a huge problem, and the answers to this particular research question could be the first step in bridging one of many gaps in the research pertaining to this field. If the hypothesis that those who suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder tend to choose jobs that are more isolative is supported, more studies need to be conducted on the impact this concept may have on society since these tendencies have been correlated to other negative concepts in psychology (Simon, Judge, & Halvorsen-Ganepola, 2010, Teo et al., 2013).

References

  • Havranek, M. M., Volkart, F., Bolliger, B., Roos, S., Buschner, M., Mansour, R., Chmielewski, T., … Ruch, W. (2017). The fear of being laughed at as additional diagnostic criterion in social anxiety disorder and avoidant personality? PLoS ONE, 12 (11), 1-11. doi: https://doi. org/10. 1371/journal. pone. 0188024
  • Herpertz-Dahlmann, B., Buhren, K., & Remschmidt, H. (2013) Growing up is hard: mental disorders in adolescence. Deutsches Arzteblatt International, 110 (25), 432-440. doi: 10. 3238/arztebl. 2013. 0432
  • Horley, K., Williams, L. M., Gonsalvez, C., & Gordon, E. (2004). Face to face: visual scanpath evidence for abnormal processing of facial expressions in social phobia. Psychiatry Research, 127, 43-53. doi: 10. 1016/j. psychres. 2004. 02. 016
  • Simon, S. S., Judge, T. A., & Halvorsen-Ganepola, M. D. K. (2010). In good company? A multi-study, multi-level investigation of the effects of coworker relationships on employee well-being. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 76 (3), 534-546. doi: http://dx. doi. org/10. 1016/j. jvb. 2010. 01. 00
  • Teo, A. R., Lerrigo, R., & Rogers, M. A. M. (2013). The role of social isolation in social anxiety disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 27 (4), 353-364. doi: http://dx. doi. org/10. 1016/j. janxdis. 2013. 03. 010
  • Williams, J., & Bates, G. (2011). Social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. In G. Murray (Eds.), A Critical Introduction to DSM (pp. 167-201). Retrieved from https://hyperremote. galib. uga. edu/login? url= http://search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct= true&db= nlebk&AN= 541291&site= ehost-live.
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