Project Proposal 2020/2021 Name: Bethany Moody Date: 30/10/2020 Supervisor name: Nicola Gregory Supervisor signature: Introduction The aim of this research is to find out whether safety behaviours and avoidance of an anxiety provoking situation maintains or worsens social anxiety, particularly after being unable to socialise due to the lockdown following the Covid 19 pandemic. Safety behaviours have been defined as 'overt or covert avoidance of feared outcomes within a specific situation' (Salkovskis, 1991). Where some of these safety behaviours can be adaptive such as wearing a helmet whilst riding a bicycle, some may maintain anxiety disorders; for example, frequently checking pulse when feelings anxious (Telch & Zaizar, 2020). The safety behaviours are different for certain anxiety disorders. Kamphuis & Telch (1998) created a table categorizing safety behaviours for certain anxiety populations. The table includes social anxiety disorder, in which sufferers may worry about coming across as awkward or messing up in a social conversation. Mentally reviewing this conversation afterwards for signs of nervousness or awkwardness, looking for ways to escape the situation or avoiding the situation entirely may be safety behaviours in those with social anxiety. There is a wide range of research on safety behaviours, and how these maintain anxiety. However, there is a lack of current evidence on how being unable to socialise and therefore avoiding this for a long period of time affects those with social anxiety. This is a very current topic in the news. For example Medical News Today stated 'Physical distancing may provide relief for people with social anxiety, but a lack of interaction can also maintain social anxiety' Due to this lack of research, this study asks: does avoidance of an anxiety provoking situation, such as during the national lockdown, maintains or worsens social anxiety? Method
This study will be a within participants design. All participants will answer all questionnaires. Participants will be fifty Bournemouth university post graduate students; they will be selected through volunteer sampling on an online site. Participants will be asked to fill out a questionnaire on their levels of social anxiety, a self-report safety behaviour scale, for example the social phobia safety behaviour scale (Pinto-Gouveia, Cunha & Salvador, 2003), and a questionnaire on how not socialising during the lockdown affected their feelings about socialising afterwards. This will ask questions such as "How did you feel not being allowed to socialise" and "When the rules were lifted, how did you feel about going out socially again", these questions will be answered on a 5-point valence scale. The independent variable will be the participants' levels of social anxiety. The dependent variables will be the scores on a self-report safety behaviour scale, and the scores on a questionnaire on how the lockdown affected their feelings about socialising. The data will be analysed using the correct statistical test. Ethics Issues Participants may struggle talking about their mental health as this can be a private matter for some people and can be upsetting. To resolve this, participants will be informed before the study starts