The role of social withdrawal and rejection in the pathogenesis of social anxiety disorder: a review of the literature

Abstract

Purpose. The article provides a theoretical analysis of social withdrawal and rejection in the pathogenesis of social anxiety disorder as modifying factors of vulnerability. Methods. The literature review proposed in the article was conducted using articles published on PubMed, Web-of-Science, and Research Gate on the following criteria: the study was for people diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder or belonging to a subclinical group; conducted an initial assessment or analysis of the impact of social exclusion and rejection; the focus of research is a social phobia and/or social withdrawal/rejection. Results. More than 214 scientific articles were analyzed, most published after 2017. Selected thirty articles were according to the criteria. Based on the results of the data analysis, it was established that the assimilation of traumatic social experience and an increased level of neuroticism contribute to the formation of maladaptive cognitive strategies for evaluating social situations and oneself in them. Behavioral avoidance strategies appropriated to their content due to the fear of social rejection, directly reducing persons' social effectiveness. Insufficient awareness of one's own emotions and distorted beliefs around them stimulates avoidance and social withdrawal as a preventive measure. That causes high indicators of social anxiety, increase the perception of social threat, reduces the perception of control over it, and as a result, actualizes the patterns of traumatic experience that the person tried to avoid. Assimilation of subjective emotional experience under limited resources of life circumstances (such as a pandemic, problematic relationships, a prolonged situation of uncertainty, etc.) increase vulnerability to social anxiety disorder as an unproductive coping strategy. Conclusions. Avoiding emotional experiences and maintaining a non-corrective experience of relationships for fear of rejection can reinforce a dysfunctional cycle of cognitive beliefs about oneself and the world in the pathogenesis of social phobia and find expression in social withdrawal.

Keywords

• avoidant behavior
• social trauma
• early dysfunctional schemes
• stigma
• covid-19