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In search of social phobia subtypes: Similarity of feared social situations
Author(s) -
Stein Murray B.,
Deutsch Reena
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
depression and anxiety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.634
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6394
pISSN - 1091-4269
DOI - 10.1002/da.10093
Subject(s) - psychology , similarity (geometry) , sample (material) , phobic disorder , specific phobia , social psychology , clinical psychology , anxiety disorder , anxiety , psychiatry , artificial intelligence , computer science , image (mathematics) , chemistry , chromatography
The existence of subtypes of social phobia has been questioned. Although cluster analytic methods have been used to support various subtype models, a continuous model based on total number of feared social situations seems equally plausible. In a community sample, we calculated mean similarity measures for combinations of item pairs of feared social situations. Speaking fear items were significantly more similar to each other than to other items. There was also a trend for interaction fear items to be more similar to each other than to other items. These findings suggest that fear of speaking and interactional situations may represent distinct domains of socially feared situations. They should be considered separately in delineation of treatment response and may, if replicated in clinical samples, help identify meaningful subtypes of social phobia. Depression and Anxiety 17:94–97, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.