Abstract
Sociophobia is a specific disorder that is particularly prevalent among young people. Genetic predisposition to the anxious reaction pattern, contradictory demands of society, increasing evaluability of many situations, and unequal value of specific socially significant attributes of social prestige lead to the emergence of the disease. The assignment’s primary goal is to systematize sociophobia among students, with the possibility of further investigation. Sociophobia deprives a person of an opportunity to live a whole life, so the case of its timely treatment is significant and relevant. With the help of quantitative and qualitative methodology, the necessary data have been collected. The conducted research can become a qualitative source for further research with the possibility of preventing the development of symptomatology.
Introduction
People are social beings, and their ability to feel comfortable in social situations affects many vital aspects of their lives, including family, education, work, leisure, romantic acquaintances, and relationships. Society necessarily affects individuals both positively and negatively, causing phobias. One particularly vulnerable category is students, who experience many experiences entering an educational institution’s atmosphere. Problems with peers and the stress of studying can lead to sociophobia. This disorder poisons a person’s life and doesn’t allow them to solve trivial everyday issues.
Sociophobics find it challenging to make friends and have a personal life. It is difficult for them to find a job, as they consider only jobs whose functions do not involve contact with other people. It is difficult for an individual who suffers from it to seek medical attention and tell the doctor about their ailment. The sociophobe’s philosophy is to live alone and avoid all situations involving contact with the human community (Odilova, 2021). These are just some of the few consequences of the illness that fundamentally change the life of the patients, depriving them of many opportunities. The products of sociophobia and their peculiarities must be studied in detail so that the symptoms can be identified early and eliminated quickly.
Literature Review
Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder in which specific situations or objects cause people to experience fear, anxiety, and a desire to avoid them. In most cases, the fear and anxiety are disproportionate to the actual threat. According to research, social phobia occurs in about 9% of women and 7% of men in any 12 months, but a lifetime prevalence can be as high as 13% of the population (Odilova, 2021). Fear and anxiety in people with social phobia often focus on the possibility of being embarrassed or humiliated if they fail to meet expectations or are subjected to intense scrutiny by others in social interactions.
Moreover, situations in which social phobia is expected to include public speaking, participating in a theatrical performance, or playing a musical instrument in an orchestra. Other potential problems include: eating with others, meeting with strangers, keeping up a conversation, signing documents in front of witnesses, and using public restrooms (Odilova, 2021). A more generalized type of social phobia causes anxiety in various social situations. Most people recognize that their fears are unreasonable and excessive.
Numerous attempts have been made to investigate the causes of sociophobia by studying the peculiarities of the higher nervous activity of sociophobes. Studies have confirmed that social phobia is directly related to deficits and imbalances in certain neurotransmitters (Renduees, 2017). Physiological causes of sociophobia also include excessive arousal in specific brain areas. Social phobias often begin in adolescence and center around a fear of experiencing attention from others in relatively small groups of people, resulting in avoidance of social situations.
However, sociophobia in the majority of cases is psychological, so psychotherapy acquires the most significant importance in treating sociophobia. For people suffering from sociophobia, a course of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy is most often recommended (Guitton et al., 2018). Understanding the fallacy of the formed self-explanations and beliefs connected with the perception of one’s condition, the bodily sensations accompanying it, and the subsequent systematic counteraction to these beliefs makes it possible to eliminate chronic anxieties and fears.
Methodology
The study will use a qualitative method relying on primary and secondary data. The latter will be collected through university websites, interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires to find answers to the research questions. Data on which symptoms and behaviors to look out for will be obtained from the Internet from educational and medical resources. Employees will be involved in the study through questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups to understand their experiences with sociophobia and perceptions of its role in academic success.
Anonymous questionnaires are essential in these settings because they are easy to administer, and it is possible to obtain truthful first-hand information. Similarly, questionnaires and interviews are cheap, easy to administer and provide information in simple, manageable forms to evaluate. These data collection methods will be assessed to ensure their validity, reliability, and relevance to the questions. Consequently, the study will use a qualitative design to collect relevant data to help understand the psychological effects of social phobia on undergraduate students.
Limitations
Ideally, the level of the impact should be measured by personally visiting each individual participating in the study and conducting detailed interviews with all students to determine the symptomatology and effects of the illness. However, this is not possible due to time and resource constraints. Moreover, a significant limitation is a potential for students to provide untruthful data for fear or shame of revealing their true feelings and experiences. In this context, comparing the results of covert questionnaires and interviews is rational to determine data reliability.
Discussion
Sociophobia significantly poisons a person’s life and makes it impossible to solve trivial everyday issues. It is difficult for students with the disorder to find a job in the future, as they only consider jobs whose functions do not involve contact with other people. A person with a social phobia has difficulty seeking medical attention and telling the doctor about their ailment. These features significantly interfere with the student’s everyday life, so specific therapeutic interventions must be made.
Moreover, in most cases, the social phobia has its roots in childhood, when an immature personality experiences some strong negative emotion, which is later displaced from the sphere of consciousness. When the child faces a psychologically traumatic event and cannot interpret the circumstances correctly because of their age, the incorrectly evaluated experience is displaced into the subconscious (Renduees, 2017). For this purpose, it is necessary for the subject to re-experience the psychologically traumatic situation but to evaluate it correctly and constructively, without any distortions. Such attitudes are formed based on a specific personal portrait, the wrong strategy of parental education, and adverse personal experiences. The task of the psychotherapist is to create the conditions for patients so that they can cope with their condition in psychologically traumatic situations and correct their dysfunctional thinking styles and formed irrational attitudes.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the most common effects of social phobia are low self-esteem and a fear of criticism. These cause problems with the search for a job, reluctance to communicate with people, and spending time outside the home. Symptoms can progress to panic attacks, with irreversible consequences such as an inability to find a place in society. The main success in preventing the consequences is the timely identification of symptoms, which will contribute to eliminating symptoms and their development.
References
Guitton, M. J., Klin, Y., & Dudai, Y. (2018). Taste-dependent sociophobia: when food and company do not mix. Behavioural brain research, 191(2), 148-152. Web.
Odilova, Y. I. (2021). Psychological features of fear and sociophobia in children. ACADEMICIA: An International Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 11(8), 258-262.
Rendueles, C. (2017). Sociophobia. In Sociophobia. Columbia University Press.