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Anxiety In Today's Society

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According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 18% of the United States population, a total of 40 million people, are affected by an anxiety disorder. The most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders states that Social Anxiety Disorder is, “a persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others. The individual fears that he or she will act in a way that will be embarrassing and humiliating” (DSM-IV-TR). Social Anxiety disorder is an increased issue in today’s society as it produces unproductive, unhappy members of society who, like the person in the image below displaying the effects of anxiety, are unable to …show more content…
During stages in which individuals are strongly influenced by their environments, such as during puberty, two factors in the community play an important role in this influence: “...(1) competitive norms within the community and (2) achievement pressures...” (Lund). In affluent communities, very high competitive norms are present, such as the norm to be a part of elite schools and sports teams, and to maintain high social standings. These competitive norms put pressure on students growing up in such communities during puberty. If students do not meet these criterion, rather than putting it behind them, students feel pressured by social comparison. For that reason, stress builds up and manifests the idea of not being good enough inside the student’s head. This manifestation eventually leads to social anxiety disorder later in life, because of the person’s history of social …show more content…
Cultures can be classified into two types: collectivistic and individualistic. According to a study on culture and social anxiety, “In collectivistic cultures, harmony within the group is the highest priority and the individual gain is considered to be less important than improvement of the broader social group...more overt social norms exist to maintain social harmony. In contrast, in individualistic societies, individual achievements and success receive the greatest reward and social admiration” (Hofmann). Multiple studies have shown that collectivism positively correlates with anxiety while individualism negatively correlates with anxiety. Because of this, it can be known that collectivism is a cause of anxiety due to the pressures to be a part of society. In a collectivistic culture, it is important that social behavior demonstrated is that of the approved way of acting in that society. This puts stress on an individual to act with a set standard in specific environments. When an individual from a collectivistic culture is encountered by a new situation, he or she has a difficult time deciding how to behave and has an immense fear of being embarrassed, which is how social anxiety is defined. Because individualistic cultures promote independent self-construals, individualistic people are less prone to embarrassment and therefore, less prone to social anxiety disorder. Social anxiety disorder

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