Clark & Wells (1995) · Social anxiety disorder
Clark & Wells (1995)
Social Situation
A social situation that activates the person's fears — meeting new people, speaking in a group, being observed or evaluated. Underlying assumptions ('I must appear competent or I'll be rejected') are triggered here.
Negative Predictions
Negative predictions about how one will come across — 'I'll blush and they'll think something's wrong with me', 'I'll dry up', 'They'll see I'm anxious and judge me'. The situation is appraised as socially dangerous.
Anxiety
Anxiety symptoms — somatic (blushing, sweating, trembling, racing heart) and cognitive (mind going blank). These symptoms become part of the feared impression and are taken as evidence of how one appears.
Self-Focused Attention
Attention shifts away from the situation and onto the self. The person monitors their own feelings and sensations and uses this internal information to construct a distorted, observer-perspective impression of how they appear to others.
Safety / Avoidance Behaviours
Safety and avoidance behaviours — rehearsing, avoiding eye contact, gripping objects, speaking little, leaving early, or avoiding altogether. They prevent disconfirmation of the negative predictions and often make the feared symptoms worse.
The published model, shown for reference. Switch to “Blank” to see the empty template you complete with a client.
When we feel anxious in social situations, it can seem as though everyone is noticing and judging us. This model explains how social anxiety keeps itself going, even when the people around us aren't actually being critical.
It usually begins in a situation that feels risky — meeting new people, speaking up, being watched. Beliefs like 'I must come across well or I'll be rejected' lead to negative predictions: 'I'll go red and they'll think I'm odd', 'I'll have nothing to say'.
Once anxious, attention turns inwards. Instead of following the conversation, you start closely monitoring yourself — how you sound, look and feel — and use those feelings to picture how you must appear to others. This inside view is usually far more negative than the reality, but it feels true.
To get through, you might do subtle things to feel safer — rehearsing sentences, avoiding eye contact, gripping a glass, saying little, or leaving early. These safety behaviours stop the feared disaster, so you never discover it might not have happened anyway. Going over the event afterwards, and dreading the next one, keeps the whole pattern alive.
How to introduce the model, guided-discovery questions, treatment targets and a behavioural experiment are available to signed-in therapists.
This diagram is a reconstruction of the published model for clinical and educational use, grounded in the sources above.
Formulate provides educational CBT resources for use with a qualified therapist. They are not a substitute for professional assessment, diagnosis, or crisis care.
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