The Interaction Effect of Impression Motivation and Impression Efficacy on Social Anxiety: Analyzing Situational and Dispositional Differences

: Social anxiety can have severe negative consequences for individuals, from lack of crucial social interaction to lower quality of life. A self-presentation theory of social anxiety posits that social anxiety results from outcome expectancies of social interactions (impression efficacy) and how motivated the individual is to create a good impression (impression motivation). There is also a proposed interaction effect, theorizing that as impression efficacy increases, the association between impression motivation and social anxiety weakens. In a lab study (N=125), measures of impression motivation and impression efficacy were measured situationally (e.g., “I believe I will make the impression that I want to achieve”). These measures were collected both prior to a social interaction with a confederate and after, with the belief that another interaction would take place. Conversely, an online survey (N=301) collected the two measures from a dispositional viewpoint (e.g., “In social interactions, other people probably see me as I like them to see me”). Both pre and post interaction moderation analyses in the lab study failed to find a significant interaction effect. However, a significant interaction was found in the online survey data. This inconsistency may point to differences between the variables, depending on whether they are observed from a situational or dispositional perspective. Analysis of this discrepancy could have implications for further understanding the mechanisms of social anxiousness, as well as potential alleviation techniques and/or treatments.