Abstract

College life is a unique experience in the life of many young adults that presents many challenges for which they might not be prepared, including living away from home and adapting to a new social and academic environment. In particular, these experiences may be particularly adverse for students with social phobia and may be predictors of academic and social problems, and may even predict dropout. The purpose of the present research is to identify possible connections between socially phobic tendencies and the social, emotional, and overall well-being of college students. Social phobia itself is an unnecessary and overwhelming fear of being scrutinized by others (National Institute of Mental Health 2009). By implementing the use of four psychological tests: the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, College Affiliation Questionnaire, and Life Orientation Test, this research sought to investigate the correlations existing between college students' self-reports on these measures through the use of the UCF Sona system. Students' personal characteristics and demographics were also examined correlationally along with their self-reports on all four measures. A total of 165 participants were used in this study. After gathering descriptive statistics from each test and their demographics, correlations were run between the four tests and then between demographic information and tests. The results showed social phobia having a positive correlation with negative affect and a negative relationship with positive affect. In turn, negative emotion was correlated with a lowered overall life orientation and a more pessimistic mindset. No strong correlations were identified between psychological tests and student characteristics as was previously thought. Overall, there are definite indicators that social anxiety has a negative impact on one's quality of life and emotions, however, more research needs to be done with more diverse sampling and different methodology to see if there is a link between particular student characteristics and prevalence rates of social anxiety within those characteristic subsets.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2014

Semester

Spring

Advisor

McConnell, Daniel

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences; Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic

Format

PDF

Identifier

CFH0004562

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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Included in

Psychology Commons

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