Have you ever had a terrible experience in which you were afraid of making mistakes, looking bad or being embarrassed and ashamed in front of others? Have you ever gotten nervous or self-conscious when you gave a speech or interviewed for a new job? Many people had similar experience at first but they finally have overcome fears quickly when they got involved in these activities. These occasional nerves did not interfere with their everyday function. Unfortunately, some of them, have had excessive and unreasonable fear of social situations and have suffered tremendous distress and intensive psychological traumas chronically. These symptoms are called Social Anxiety Disorder. This social phobia involves intense fear of certain social situations, especially situations that are unfamiliar or in which people feel they will be watched or evaluated by others (Smith, Gill, Helpguide.org). It has an element of shyness at its core, so the concern those people have with Social Anxiety Disorder is when they are in situations where around other people. There is the potential for other people to think badly of them. The fear may be made worse by a lack of social skills or experience in social situations. The anxiety can build into a panic attack. As a result of the fear, the person endures certain social situations in extreme distress or may avoid them altogether. In addition, people with social anxiety disorder often suffer "anticipatory" anxiety -- the fear of a situation before it even happens -- for days or weeks before the event. In many cases, the person is aware that the fear is unreasonable, yet is unable to overcome it (Webmd). Most of them just step away from opportunities because they do not even want to be in embarrassed situations. .
Social psychology is the systematic study of how people's feelings and thoughts are influenced by others. In other words, it is the study about understanding individual behavior in a social context.
