Description


P. Michiel Westenberg, PhD

In this research lab we make an attempt to explain why an increase of social anxiety – i.e. the fear of negative social evaluation – might be part and parcel of adolescent development and how it can grow out of control for some adolescents.

In several cross-sectional and longitudinal studies we have shown that social anxiety increases during adolescence. Other researchers have shown that the prevalence of social anxiety disorder also increases during adolescence. However, little is known about the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of this concurrent increase of normal and deviant forms of social anxiety.

We are currently conducting a large-scale, longitudinal research project to investigate typical and atypical courses of social anxiety during adolescence. Various intra-personal and inter-personal variables are assessed so as to determine the relationship between these variables and the emergent pathways of social anxiety. A key ingredient in the research is the public speaking task. This task affords behavioral and physiological assessments of the fear of negative social evaluation, in addition to subjective, self-report measures of social-evaluation anxiety.

A distinctive feature of this research is the explicit conceptualization and assessment of developmental maturity, rather than relying on age as a proxy for development. We are using existing indices of pubertal and cognitive development and have constructed new measures of psychosocial maturation and perspective-taking. Close attention to various aspects of development, regardless of chronological age, allows us to determine which aspect is particularly important for the (a)typical development of social anxiety in adolescence.
 

Specific projects