Social Anxiousness: The Construct and Its Measurement

The self-report measures of social anxiety that are commonly used in social psychological and personality research confound the measurement of social anxiousness with the measurement of specific behaviors that often, but not always, accompany social anxiety. Theoretical and methodological issues regarding this problem are discussed, and two new scales are presented that measure interaction and audience anxiousness independent of specific social behaviors. Psychometric data show the scales to possess high internal consistency and test-retest reliability, as well as strong evidence of construct and criterion validity.