Cognitive Model of Social Anxiety
Clark & Wells (1995) · Social anxiety disorder
Written by Tarun Vermani, Trainee Clinical Psychologist Last reviewed
The Clark and Wells (1995) cognitive model of social anxiety explains how self-focused attention, a distorted impression of how one appears, and in-situation safety behaviours keep social fear going even when others are not being critical.
Cognitive Model of Social Anxiety
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.
Understanding the model
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.
Questions therapists ask about this model.
Frequently asked questions
What maintains social anxiety in this model?
Entering a situation that feels evaluative activates assumptions about needing to come across well, and with them negative predictions — going red, drying up, being judged odd. Attention then turns inward, and the client builds a picture of how they appear out of how they feel rather than out of what others are doing. Safety behaviours keep the feared outcome from being disconfirmed, and anticipatory dread and the post-event review carry the pattern forward.
How does it differ from a specific phobia formulation?
A specific phobia is understood through learning and avoidance: the cue triggers fear, escape brings relief, and the relief makes avoiding more likely. Social anxiety adds a processing layer — while the situation is still running, the client is generating an inside-out impression of themselves that is usually far more negative than the reality. That is why the model gives self-focused attention and in-situation safety behaviours a central place.
Who does the Clark and Wells model suit?
Adults whose fear is of being evaluated by other people rather than of a particular object or place — social anxiety disorder as NICE CG159 describes it in adults (the guideline also covers children and young people). It applies to performance fears, such as speaking in a meeting, as well as to everyday conversation. Its distinctive emphasis, developed by Wells and colleagues (1995) and by Clark and McManus (2002), is on processing inside the situation: self-focused attention, the impression of oneself built from it, and in-situation safety behaviours.
Worksheets and reading for this model
Using this model in session — for therapists
How to introduce the model, guided-discovery questions, treatment targets and a behavioural experiment are available to signed-in therapists.
References
- Clark, D. M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. G. Heimberg, M. R. Liebowitz, D. A. Hope, & F. R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: Diagnosis, assessment, and treatment (pp. 69–93). Guilford Press.
- Wells, A., Clark, D. M., Salkovskis, P., Ludgate, J., Hackmann, A., & Gelder, M. (1995). Social phobia: The role of in-situation safety behaviors in maintaining anxiety and negative beliefs. Behavior Therapy, 26(1), 153–161.
- Clark, D. M., & McManus, F. (2002). Information processing in social phobia. Biological Psychiatry, 51(1), 92–100.
This diagram is a reconstruction of the published model for clinical and educational use, grounded in the sources above.
Cite this page (APA 7)
Vermani, T. (2026). Cognitive Model of Social Anxiety. Formulate. https://formulatetools.co.uk/tools/formulation/social-anxiety-clark-wells
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