Locus of Control in Social Anxiety Disorder: A Cross-sectional Study

Description

Page: 1650-1655

Kavisha Shah and Kamayani Mathur (Department of Psychology, School of Psychology, Education and Philosophy, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat)

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), commonly referred to as Social Phobia, is a disorder which is characterized by an intense fear and anxiety of being judged or negatively evaluated in social or performance situations, often leading to avoidance, marked distress, and heightened sensitivity to criticism or rejection. While SAD is typically understood through its emotional and behavioural symptoms, it may also be associated with generalized beliefs about personal control over life events. The present research aimed to examine whether patients with SAD differ from healthy controls in their locus of control (LoC) by assessing the extent to which they attribute outcomes to individual factors such as personal agency or to external influences such as chance or powerful others. A total of 62 participants from the state of Gujarat were selected using the purposive sampling technique, including 30 patients diagnosed with SAD from psychiatric outpatient departments, and 32 healthy controls were selected from general community with no history of psychiatric illness. Indian adaptation of Levenson’s Locus of Control Scale (Vohra, 1992) was used to assess LoC. Group differences across LoC dimensions were analysed using one-way ANOVA. Results showed that patients with SAD reported significantly stronger beliefs in control by powerful others compared to healthy controls. A significant difference was also observed in individual control dimension as well, with the healthy control group showing greater individual control. No significant group difference emerged for chance-based control beliefs. These findings suggest that external control beliefs, particularly involving powerful others, may play a meaningful role in how social anxiety is experienced and maintained. However, further research is needed to understand these associations and their implications for intervention.