ABSTRACT
Although it is acknowledged that culture can impact on the physiological, behavioral, and cognitive manifestations of social anxiety disorder (SAD) (1), there are relatively few cross-cultural studies in existence. A question that arises in cross-cultural research on SAD is how to measure, in a standardized way, the different components of social anxiety in different cultural groups and how to determine to what extent these emotions and behaviors are attributable to cultural affiliation when two populations differ on language, customs, attitudes, beliefs, and social structure. Certainly, studies on SAD in culturally different samples within a country are more numerous than cross-national or multinational studies, probably because samples within a country are more easily accessed than samples across countries (2). Additionally, convenience samples (e.g., college students) are often selected for cross-cultural research on shyness and SAD on the premise that similar samples drawn from western cultures are not different with respect to the anxious and phobic responses they display. This contention is illustrated by the widespread use of similar assessment instruments and treatment modalities for SAD across cultures (2). Conversely, it has been argued that results from one sample are not simply generalizable to other samples drawn from similar cultural settings. This view is supported by findings of a recent study on cross-cultural differences in social anxiety among students sampled from three western countries (the United States, the Netherlands, and Turkey). Comparison of the levels of social anxiety across the three groups revealed that American students had higher levels of social anxiety than did Dutch and Turkish students. American students also demonstrated fewer social skills than the other two groups, who did not differ in this regard (2). This chapter considers the impact of culture on the prevalence, clinical presentation, and treatment of SAD.
