Predictive Effect of Social Cognitive Skills on Social Anxiety

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between social anxiety and social cognition skills (emotion identification/discrimination, theory of mind, attribution bias, social functioning) and to investigate the predictive power of social cognition skills on social anxiety. In the study, it was also investigated whether social anxiety, social cognition skills and depression scores differed according to gender, age, reported diagnosis status and anxiety level. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 385 participants between the ages of 18-60. The research data were collected from the participants online using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Facial Emotion Identification and Facial Emotion Discrimination Tests, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributes Scale, the Social Functioning Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Sociodemographic Information Form. It was determined that there was a negative relationship between social anxiety and emotion recognition, emotion discrimination and mind reading, and a positive relationship with externalization bias and depression. It was found that depression, emotion recognition and discrimination, mind reading, and antecedent social activities scale scores significantly predicted social anxiety. These variables explain 52% of the total variance related to social anxiety. In addition, when the depression effect was controlled, it was seen that social cognition skills explained 32% of the variance related to social anxiety. It was determined that the deterioration in social cognition skills and depression scores were associated with an increase in social anxiety. According to the results obtained from the research, suggestions were made to prevent social anxiety. It is suggested that it would be beneficial to include activities to develop social cognition skills, which are important for individuals' interpersonal communication, within intervention programs.