Social Anxiety and College Students Essay Example

seeks to explore on social anxiety in college students by looking at its sources, characteristics and ways of addressing this disorder.

Theory and application

· Social anxiety lowers academic performance of students.
· Social anxiety in most cases is characterized by the fear of doing something or participating in an activity.
· Approximately 10 percent of all students in higher learning institutions are affected by social anxiety.
· If not handled, social anxiety in majority cases can make a student avoid an activity altogether.

Literature review

According to a new research collected by the University of Plymouth, it was established that public speaking is the most common of social anxiety in a large number of students today. Even when called to present a certain topic in class, most of the people get crippled with anxiety or embarrassment. Similar reactions are evident in cases where a person has pointed out by a teacher to give an answer to a certain question. For those students having anxiety, being appointed occasionally for participation in some activities or during presentations is enough to create fear within them thus making them avoid attendance of classes altogether(Brown, 2013).

This research by the University of Bristol aimed at exploring on the impact brought about by social anxiety in higher learning institutions. A hypotheses before the study said that an approximated percentage of 10 of all the students in a University are usually affected by the disorder of social anxiety. People are diagnosed with this disorder if it affects their life I a negative way. An investigation in the University of Plymouth recruited a total of 1500 students (Wowra, 2007).

Out of the number that was investigated, a number of students went

through frequent anxiety in situations of learning that comprised of an interaction between a student and a member of the staff. In order to ensure that they have coped with this experience, some of the student would avoid attending presentations or lectures (Farfan, 2013). In serious cases, students would end up missing all classes altogether. According to the research, it was established some students in the university avoided taking units that were taught through students’ presentations at times. On this issue, the researchers made a conclusion that students affected with the disorder of social anxiety could be missing important opportunities of learning by being distracted from taking part in their studies due to the fact that most of their attention has been directed towards their disorders.

Although the researchers had no belief in students being taken as potentially coddled or fragile, there is a need of initiating a form of support for those students affected with social anxiety disorder with stigmatizing them further or making them view themselves as a group that has been exposed. The researchers gave suggestions aimed towards the improvement of this situation in our universities. One of them included avoidance the taking a single student for questioning as a lecture is in progress. Another one said t that presentations should not be taken as a way of student assessment as it make some of them feel uncomfortable as they were presenting (Crockett et al, 2007). College professors basically need to incorporate styles that go as per the desires of all the students. Some of the students love the spotlight while another category has a social anxiety disorder and hence the best strategy

would be relief students from taking part in presentations or question answering in classes.

According to Crockett et al (2007), some experts in mental health came up with strategies to help social anxiety affected students succeed in their class work. Nerina Garcia-Arcement who is a licensed clinical psychologist and also a clinical assistant professor based at NYU medical school gave a very great suggestion for helping students affected by the problem. He argued that students should not avoid the things they have fear in. This according to him is because the more one fears a certain thing; the more he/she is creating very strong grounds to support that he/she will be comfortable with not doing that thing. Control of anxiety consists of a number of several steps. These include:

• Start by an evaluation of the feelings you have towards a certain issue. Some of these feelings include sweating, butterflies in stomach, heart racing or troubles when breathing.
• Stop and then evaluate the thoughts you have. Some of these thoughts include the thought of I will look ridiculous; I will fail; or I will be a laughing stock to the other people.
• Practice activities that will that will help towards the reduction of physical symptoms. Some of these activities include muscle relaxation exercises, deep breathing, and making an imagination that you in a place that is safe (Crockett et al, 2007).
• Ensure that you have challenged the negativities you have by stopping the belief you have and then replace it with a thought that is positive. Some of these positive thoughts include: I am able to do this; and I have never been laughed at by the
  

people before.

There are effective ways to be employed by students near mental therapy facilities that will help them recover from this problem. Talk therapy has been proved as an effective way of addressing this disorder especially the cognitive the behavioral therapy (Brown, 2013). Medication can only be taken in cases where the disorder is very severe. People can sometimes do the control of social anxiety on their own while at other times they require the help of other people. In the case of self prevention, people require the monitoring of feeling and thoughts and then figure out the best approach to take (Farfan, 2013).

For quite long, researchers have been focused on the way sources of anxiety correlates with the academic performance of majority of the students. It was established that students with high levels of anxiety have low performance in terms of their academic performance. Anxiety of high levels in addition interferes with the concentration of college students which are the key factors that determine the academic performance of students. Most of the students however would lack study concentration as a result of the anxiety they have in exams, mathematical anxiety, social anxiety and also anxiety emanating from other many sources. Feeling anxious and discomfort while in classroom does not play any role towards the enhancement of learning of any student (Brown, 2013).

Symptoms of psychological anxiety among college students include panicking, having a feeling of being nervous during class, going blank in mind especially during exam time, feeling helpless in the course of doing assignments, having no interest in some of the subjects whereas physiological symptoms comprise of issues such as upset stomach, racing heartbeat

and sweaty palms (Warrell, 2013). According to a previous research, anxiety can be described as a physical and psychological response in order to treat a self concept which is characterized by consciously perceived and subjective feelings of tension. Students who have the problem of anxiety have experiences of cognitive deficits such as blocking of memory, misapprehension of information, and also hindering of the ability to recall. The anxiety research reported that anxiety is portrayed into two major forms. State anxiety to state with is a form of response towards a set of circumstances or a particular stimulation (Warrell, 2013). The one is trait anxiety which is termed as an intrinsic trait in people. This research made a conclusion that students with anxiety of high levels portray significantly reduced motivation in classroom in comparison with the students having anxiety of low levels (Payne, 2006).

According to a previous research, study anxiety among college students is not only by lack of insufficient skills and study motivation, but also as a result of misperception about some of the courses taken and possession of negative experiences during the previous courses taken. Globally, people view anxiety as a trait which is permanently embedded within a person. Previous studies found association of anxiety disorders among many of the students in institutions of higher learning (Wowra, 2007).

These researchers however have failed to study on the potential sources of such an anxiety in these students.
A study conducted to determine the type of relationship between assertiveness and anxiety did not come with a result supporting a correlation which is negative. The strength with this relationship according to the research was not that strong as per

the expectations before the research. Majority of the participants taken in this study scored moderately on both social anxiety and assertiveness. Through research, it was established that assertiveness can be gauged on a continuum with both negative and positive levels included. Assertiveness which is negative is evident only in people who exhibit anxiety of high levels and also people with behaviors that are goal oriented. A person of this type can be described as being aggressive (Misra & McKean, 2000).

According to this current research, participants who were recorded to have anxiety of high levels could receive therapy, teaching and any other form of effective treatment in order to increase skills of assertiveness and also reduce the levels of fear. Training on assertiveness that was initiated in the start of 1970s aimed at social anxiety elimination as well as the reinforcement, shaping and modeling of an assertive behavior which is positive. Another researching aimed at the relation of anxiety and gender established that there is no way in which anxiety was related to gender. Any person can be affected by the problem of social anxiety disorder regardless of the gender (Misra & McKean, 2000).

Methodology

The type of data to e collected in most of the cases determines the methodology to be employed. In this research study, interviewing was taken as the main method through which data was collected in this research study. A total of 10 students were recruited. 5 male and 5 female students were taken. The respondents taken were first years who were in the course of their second semester, taking engineering in the University of Plymouth. The specifications given to the respondents aimed towards

classifying them in terms of their level of study, undergraduate students and also students in the school of engineering (Brown, 2013). This interview involved face to face interaction between a researcher and the interviewee. The following research questions were asked to each one of the respondents taken:

• Have you ever gone through an experience of social anxiety where you had fear towards a certain thing or situation?
• What characteristics or experiences made you become aware that you were suffering from a disorder of social anxiety?
• Name the main sources of social anxiety among students in colleges.
• Give some of the ways I which the disorder of social anxiety can be addressed.

Results and discussion

According to the research, English was established as one of the major sources of social anxiety. Due to this, language has a significant towards the performance of majority of students in colleges. According to data collected, half of the students were established to have certain levels of anxiety in respect to language. The main function of language in a college setting is enhancement of communication between students in a college and also between a student and the members of the staff. On language, the study established that students of low anxiety record very high grades compared to students of high anxiety when it comes to a foreign class (Purdon et al, 2001).

Mathematics as well was established as a very major source of social anxiety. This anxiety results to avoidance of most of the assignments involving mathematical calculations. As a result of this, students with high anxiety have fear towards mathematics and hence record very low grades in mathematics. This in turn results into

overall grades which are low (Payne, 2006).

According to the research, it was established that exam anxiety is the leading source of anxiety in college students. Exam anxiety is experienced during the time when students were taking exams or preparing in order to take exams. Students showed that failure to prepare enough for exams or in other terms not able to have an enough study is the core source towards the creation of anxiety during exams (Wowra, 2007). In terms of rating, presentation anxiety was the second after anxiety experienced in the course of exams. A good characteristic of this anxiety is a case where the heart of a student beats at a very fact rate when a presentation is ongoing. All the ten students taken in the study reported to have experienced an anxiety at one point as they were doing class presentations (Purdon et al, 2001).

The symptoms of social anxiety vary from one student to the other. In the study of social anxiety, the issue of the effect brought about by social life is highly important, such as hard relations between roommates, uncomfortable feeling in a hostel, or problems when in the presence of peers. Social anxiety is influenced negatively by the behavior of a student both affective and cognitive. Two students argued that family factors contributed towards the state of social anxiety (Purdon et al, 2001). Parents suffering from anxiety disorders for instance have children who have characteristics of the same problem. From the data collected, possible ways of dealing with the problem of social anxiety included individual psychotherapy, cognitive behavior therapy, parent guidance sessions, group psychotherapy, and school based counseling. Common symptoms

of social anxiety include feelings of unhappiness, slowed speech or thinking, change of appetite, lack of interest in social gatherings, sleeplessness, loss in energy and fatigue, and feelings of guilt among others (Warrell, 2013).

Conclusion

In varying extends, college students suffer from the problem of social anxiety. Based on a research, students were able to identify different sources of anxiety comprising of presentation anxiety, exam anxiety, family anxiety, language anxiety and mathematics anxiety. The academic performance of majority of the students lowers in cases where students have been affected by such anxieties. In order to ensure that the performance of students has not been affected, institutions should make sure that they have handled the problem of social anxiety at early stages before the academic performance of students has been affected.

Annotated bibliography

Purdon, C., Antony, M., Monteiro, S., & Swinson, R. P. (2001). Social anxiety in college students. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 15(3), 203-215.
The study in this article aimed at:
a. Provide data about the frequency at which people taken in a study experience symptoms of social anxiety.
b. Examine the way participants perceive social anxiety disorder in other people.
c. Investigate the kind of relation between social anxiety disorder and perceptions on those who seem to be affected.

• Misra, R., & McKean, M. (2000). College students' academic stress and its relation to their anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction. American Journal of Health Studies, 16(1), 41.
  In this book, the authors explore deeply on the issue of academic by looking at the way it emanates and also ways in which it affect the academic performance of students. The researchers in addition looked at the way academic stress relates to leisure satisfaction and

management of time.

in which students can overcome this disorder.

References

1. Brown, Cecilia, "Are We Becoming More Socially Awkward? An Analysis of the Relationship Between Technological Communication Use and Social Skills in College Students." (2013). Psychology Honors Papers.Paper 40. http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/psychhp/40
2. Crockett, L. J., Iturbide, M. I., Torres Stone, R. A., McGinley, M., Raffaelli, M., & Carlo, G. (2007). Acculturative stress, social support, and coping: relations to psychological adjustment among Mexican American college students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13(4), 347.
3. Farfan, Guillermo. 2013. "Social Anxiety in the Age of Social Network." Vol. 26: Observer.http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2013/may-june-13/social-anxiety-in-the-age-of-social-networks.html
4. http://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2013/04/22/is-comfort-holding-you-back/#3b951aaf3d91
5. https://counseling.caltech.edu/general/InfoandResources/Shyness
6. Misra, R., & McKean, M. (2000). College students' academic stress and its relation to their anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction. American Journal of Health Studies, 16(1), 41.
7. Payne, K. (2006). Understanding and overcoming shyness. Retrieved February, 8, 2007.
8. Purdon, C., Antony, M., Monteiro, S., & Swinson, R. P. (2001). Social anxiety in college students. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 15(3), 203-215.
9. Warrell, Maggie. 2013. "Why Getting Comfortable with Discomfort Is Crucial to Success." Forbes.
10. Wowra, S. A. (2007). Moral identities, social anxiety, and academic dishonesty among American college students. Ethics & Behavior, 17(3), 303-321.