A Psychopathology Study

Communication is a very vital tool that we as humans need for survival. Utilized by every person on the planet, even to complete the smallest tasks, such as ordering food, talking on the phone, gossiping with friends, and persuading our bosses to approve a project. The majority of people are able to communicate effectively with others and are not timid to express themselves. However, there are others who do not enjoy communicating with other humans. Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be nervous, sweating, and blushing as you are about to present in front of people? People who experience these symptoms suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder. Social Anxiety Disorder is the fear of interacting with other people. Those who have this anxiety,
live with the fear of being judged and evaluated negatively by others. They also have the consternation of offending someone and making mistakes while being in front of other people. People who suffer from this disorder experience issues when eating or drinking in front of others, talking on the phone, asking questions, and working in groups. The mainly dislike being the center of attention and do not enjoy being in front of others. This type of situations can make a person feel inferior, embarrassed, and humiliated. Social anxiety is an extremely common mental disorder that affects people of every age, race, and gender. Researchers say that there is no known cause of this mental disorder, but believe that environmental factors could be a reason for its existence. For example, one known environmental factor could be overprotective parents, who do not allow their children to develop proper social skills. Therapies such as Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are utilized to treat Social Anxiety Disorder. It is extremely crucial to receive the proper treatment to combat this disorder since if left untreated it could worsen. (What is Social Anxiety Disorder, n.d., retrieved October 02, 2016).A study was conducted on individuals that have Social Anxiety to gain information over the course and persistence of the anxiety disorder. The researchers created a longitudinal study that was used to follow the participants over a period of ten years. The study was conducted by Katja Beesdo Baum, Susanne Knappe L. Fehm, Michael Hofler, Roselind Lieb, S. G. Hofmann, and Hans Ulrich Wittchen. The researchers administered the study in Berlin, Germany beginning in the year 1994 and concluding in 2004. (Beesdo Baum, Knappe, Fehm, Hofler, Lieb, Hofmann, & Wittchen, 2012).
Furthermore, the researchers found the subjects from a baseline sample drawn from government registries in the Greater Munich Area, Germany. The community sample of N = 3021 subjects consisted of Adolescents and Young Adults between the ages of 14 through 24. The participants provided written consent to approve their participation in the study. With the exception of the subjects that were 18 and under and had their parents grant their permission to participate in the research. The research was only open to participants that suffered from Social Anxiety. (Beesdo et al, 2012). Moreover, the researchers used a longitudinal research named The prospective-longitudinal Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology study to assess the mental disorders and other risk factors of the participants for 10 years utilizing an assessment such as the DSM-IV ⁄ M-CIDI (Beesdo et al, 2012 pg.
413). Surveys were also used to follow up the study in order to gather information about the symptoms that the participants felt through the course of the research. Assesments were also performed on parents to study the family history of the individuals. The first set of surveys was given to the group of young participants between the ages of 14-17 during the first and second year. The second set of surveys was done during the second and fourth year, but this time to all of the participants of the study. The third and last set of surveys were also given to all of the participants between the seventh and tenth year. The DSM-IV ⁄ M-CIDI was used to measure the symptoms, and mental disorders of the individuals. The test was given personally by the researchers utilizing “The computer- assisted version of the Munich-Composite Inter- national Diagnostic Interview (DIA-X ⁄ M-CIDI)” (Beesdo et al, 2012 pg. 413). The test included a respondent booklet that contained questions about the disorder and a list of symptoms to give a better explanation for questions that were more complex. More questions were asked about the symptoms that the participants felt when performing or
encountering social situations. Those questions were paired with visual representations of the symptoms to help the individual answer properly. If the participant stated to experience at least one symptom from the representations they would be asked nine follow up questions to estimate the cause of that specific symptom. After that, the participants were examined to determine how severe their anxiety was and how frequently it would interfere with their daily lives. (Beesdo et al, 2012).
In Addition, after the study concluded the researchers found that Social Anxiety Disorder persisted throughout half of the year after the study.
The fact that Social Anxiety Disorder is known to be a very prevalent mental disorder linked to the “high rate of 6.6% for threshold” that was found in the research (Beesdo et al, 2012 pg. 421). The majority of the cases estimated that Social Anxiety develops during childhood or early adolescence. In other words, the growth stages of childhood and adolescence are periods where it is extremely vital to take action in preventing Social Anxiety from developing. The study also found a high level of persistence of Social Anxiety Disorder symptoms in early age cases. This result shows that interventions are needed in order to prevent this anxiety from becoming extremely severe, but not many treatments are offered to young individuals that suffer this disorder. Some limitations were also encountered throughout the course of the study, such as that the assessment did not include specific questions over the trajectory of the disorder through the course of the study. Another is that most of the participants did not surpass the age of 34, which did not allow the researchers to study the pattern of the symptoms for adults. Also some cases had brief follow up periods that did not permit them to be reliable. (Beesdo et al, 2012). In Conclusion, Social Anxiety is a mental disorder that is very common and that needs to be studied in more depth. I
think that the research should have focused more on following the path of the disorder to determine how severe in can get during adulthood. I hope that this study motivates the creation of therapies that can cure SocialAnxiety Disorder.