ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0872-1366
Date of Award
6-16-2025
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
Abstract
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is frequently linked to difficulties with emotion regulation. One family of emotion regulation strategies is situation selection, which largely involves approaching or avoiding a situation based on how someone anticipates they might feel in that situation. Despite group-level SAD research about the use of avoidance as a situation selection strategy, there is limited idiographic research about how people with SAD use situational avoidance to regulate their emotions. There is also a dearth of research about the use of other situation selection strategies, including approach, at both the individual and group level. As such, the goal of this dissertation was to examine idiographic and nomothetic relationships between anxiety and the use of avoidance and approach in people with and without SAD. Participants (N = 20) were asked to complete brief surveys four times a day for 30 days using a smartphone application. The longitudinal data were analyzed using residual multilevel dynamic structural equation models and multilevel models to examine individual- and group-level differences in dynamic relationships between anxiety, approach, and avoidance. The findings indicated that individuals did not vary significantly in the relationships between these variables and that there were no significant differences between the SAD and control groups in the relationships between anxiety and situation selection strategy use. Group-level results did reveal some important autoregressive effects in people on the average. Evidence from the nomothetic approach also provided mixed support that people may use similar strategies to regulate themselves and others. Importantly, the data suggest that some people may not often engage in situational avoidance or approach, as very few study participants endorsed using these strategies to regulate themselves or others. Directions for future research and implications for intervention are discussed.
Language
English (en)
Chair and Committee
Renee Thompson
Committee Members
Brian Carpenter; Emily Willroth; Tammy English; Thomas Rodebaugh
Recommended Citation
Shin, Jin, "Examining emotion regulation in individuals with social anxiety disorder using nomothetic and idiographic approaches" (2025). Arts & Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 3507.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/3507