ABSTRACT
Social phobia is the third most prevalent mental disorder, after major depressive disorder and alcohol dependence (Kessler et al., 1994). An estimated 13.3 percent of the population in United States experiences social phobia at some point in their lives (Magee, Eaton, Wittchen, McGonagle, & Kessler, 1996). The essential feature of social phobia is persistent and intense fear of one or more social situations in which the person is exposed to the observation of others (APA, 2000). DSM-IV-TR specified a generalized subtype of social phobia, which is diagnosed when someone fears all or almost all social situations. However, the variability of social situations feared by social phobics has opened up a discussion on the necessity of distinguishing among different social phobia subtypes. Heimberg, Holt, Scheneier, Spitzer, and Liebowitz (1993) distinguished three social phobia subtypes: generalized social phobia, which includes fear across almost all social situations; nongeneralized social phobia, which includes fear of multiple social situations, but no problems in at least one social domain; and finally, discrete (or specific) social phobia, which includes fear in only one or two circumscribed social situations (e.g., public speaking or eating in public). In this article we have centered our attention on fear of public speaking. This is the most feared situation among the general population. Its prevalence ranges from 20 percent (Cho & Won, 1997; Pollard & Henderson, 1988) to 34 percent (Stein, Walter, & Forde, 1996).
