A Cognitive-Behavioral Model of Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common and impairing psychological disorders. To advance our understanding of SAD, several researchers have put forth explanatory models over the years, including one which we originally published almost two decades ago (Rapee & Heimberg, 1997), which delineated the processes by which socially anxious individuals are affected by their fear of evaluation in social situations. Our model, as revised in the 2010 edition of this text, is summarized and further updated based on recent research on the multiple processes involved in the maintenance of SAD.