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Yasmin Adi
Mr. Hackney
English 102: Rhetoric
11 April 2014
Teens: at War with Fear
Abstract
In this research, the discussion of teens having social anxiety or apprehensions will be
discussed. After creating a twelve question survey using google forms, it has been sent to the
teenage population of Joliet West High School through a link in which they click on and simply
access the survey. This survey was created in order to set out to find out if these teens have a vast
majority of signs showing social anxiety. These results were then compared to a scale indication
if the teen has a probable possibility of having social anxiety. They were then carried out into
several graphs showing how many teens fell under the possibility of having social anxiety. The
results showed that a majority of the teens do feel discomfort in everyday situations involving
social interactions.

Introduction
The occasional feeling of butterflies in your stomach before a presentation is normal. As
are the sweaty palms and fidgeting just before talking to someone with high authority. Almost
everyone has been there before and teens, most of all, have the greatest fear among any other age
group. They are the most self-conscious especially when trying to figure out who they are.
Although, when this fear gets to such an extreme to the point where this fear is preventing them
from functioning a normal, daily lifestyle, it becomes known as social anxiety. This is a disorder
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in which teens one is past the point of shyness and everything becomes an act of self-
consciousness for them. This effects teens most of all due to the stressors that are situated in their
high school and college career. In fact, social anxiety, in this case, becomes so severe, that teens
are hindered by this obstacle from fulfilling their desired goals. This can be caused by multiple
things, such as technology and stress, but mainly this condition is hereditary.
While social anxiety can be spotted within a quick glance, it can also be mistaken for
another condition just as fast. This condition can be identified as apprehensions, which is simple
fears that do not remain within ones lifetime, similar to shyness. Students facing apprehensions
live a completely different regime than someone with social anxiety for a number of reasons. For
one, the two disorders are entirely different. This problem should be put into focus because we as
a society need to solve the problem of social anxiety in order to achieve a higher standard of
living. The burden of fear teens tend to hold, ultimately force them to lack advancement. With
the proper help that can be provided, this fear can very well be overcome. The question remains
now, whether these fears are making us a society of social anxiety or apprehensions.
This topic must be brought into focus because this is the ultimate foundation of our
sociological advancement. Our generation must take the role of the parent in their hands in order
to set out as the role model for the following generations to come. With these destructive fears,
the ability to construct a greater nation is almost impossible. I myself believe I used to
experience something similar to this condition when I was younger and I would be contented in
speaking out against this disorder. I would not want anyone to experience such a dreadful
disorder that can be beaten with simple counseling and professional help. I believe our young
generation is filled with teenagers facing social anxiety caused by a variety of effects. While
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some may say our age group will be one of the most astonishing, I believe they are overlooking
most of the problematic areas and their small fears could potentially be social anxiety.

Literature Review
Pin pointing a specific cause of social anxiety is merely impossible. Looking at
the modern teen, media and technology can be assumed to have the greatest impact. According
to a study conducted by the Anxiety UK, a member of their program named Tori Torevelle
yielded compelling evidence that reads, The study found that 45 percent of people who are not
able to access their social networks or email feel worried or uncomfortable as a result. Another
study conducted by Britney Fitzgerald, writer of the article Social Media Is Causing Anxiety,
Study Finds on The Huffington Post, revenues further results stating, Over half of the social
media users polled said Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites had changed their lives --
and 51 percent of those said it's not been for the better. In other words, technology has an
impact on mostly everyone and more than half the people using social media polled to have been
affected negatively. Unfortunately, this cannot be used to infer that all teens who use technology
have social anxiety. That would be an inaccurate assumption and this may, in fact, only be a
mere case of apprehensions.
According to James McCroskey, a nonverbal behavior psychologist, apprehensions can
be classified as a fear that lasts for a short while due to the possibility of something corrupt
happening (491). Brooke Donald, psychologist at Stanford University, states, Apprehensions
have symptoms of slight discomfort and may only be for a certain event, such as a presentation.
These cases of fear are not as extreme as social anxiety, since they do not last for the victims
lifetime and are less extreme. This disorder, however, is still dangerous for teens to have. Also
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apprehensions come from living an average lifestyle of being a teen. An example of this is,
Teens may have troubles thinking to themselves No one likes me and be occupied with
looking at their negatives (Donald). This is what most teens are expected to face when growing
into an adult with all the stressors placed on them. These stressors may reach to a severe extent
to where these slight apprehensions turn into social anxiety. Fear is a common human emotion in
which, instilled in us, it is normal for people to be moderately shy or afraid. This can result in
apprehensions rather than severe social anxiety.
It can be very problematic figuring out the
differences between social anxiety and apprehensions. The
Brain and Behavior Research Foundation defines these
differences as Social anxiety has an intense feeling of
fear in social situations and especially situations that are
unfamiliar or, in which, one will be watched or evaluated
by others, while apprehensions are only a minor case of fear lasting only for a short while (227).
In figure 1, Alex Paul, author of an article on Mental Health Guru, illustrates the average
persons life with social anxiety as grueling. With this being an issue, the ability for teens to
become more proficient in society is put on hold. For example, in order to rightfully have the
professional stance of drawing in authority, one is highly recommended to make sufficient eye
contact (Social Anxiety or Apprehensions 19). This can be deemed as important because eye
contact shows someone has confidence and they deliver respect to the speaker. The problem with
teens these days is they are always stuck in another world, whether it be technology or any form
of escape from reality.
Figure 1. This video describes the daily life of
someone with social anxiety (Mental Health
Guru).
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Being a mainly technology based generation, it can be hard to turn away from the
distractions that devices may bring. Torevelle also found that 45 percent of people who are not
able to access their social networks or email feel worried or uncomfortable as a result". This
being the result, these people are showing an example of social anxiety symptoms. These
symptoms include, according to Valencia Higuera, author of the article Social Anxiety
Disorder in Healthline magazine, blushing, nausea, excessive sweating, trembling or shaking,
difficulty speaking, dizziness or lightheadedness and rapid heart rate (107). This does not
guarantee these people using electronics are facing social anxiety, rather it may be apprehensions
instead. This is why this issue should be brought into focus and with these clarifications, it can
possibly bring the attention potentially to people with higher power in order to solve the
problem. In fact, 72% of people introduced to this disorder are unaware the disorder truly
exists (Hollander). If this is a situation mainly affecting teens, it would be logical for them to be
more informed of the topic.
Social anxiety is making our generation
lack communication skills. Our social skills are,
furthermore, decreasing as the generations go
on. According to a study conducted by John
Amery, the correlations between
communication apprehension and both fear of
performance and avoidance of performance
were positive and strong (490). This being said,
the hindrance caused by their fears will not help us, but only hurt us. In sum of Amerys study,
The results of this research indicate modest negative relationships of willingness to
Figure 2. This video explains social anxiety affecting teens
(PanicNoMore.net).
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communicate with the social phobia components of fear and avoidance of social situations
(491). In figure 2, the video exclaims how a modern teen with social anxiety disorder can delay
improvement in our generation. With the descent of social skills teens were once known to have,
this can only mean our generation and the generations to come will suffer from this lack of
comfort, for it is highly needed for progress to be established.
Social anxiety disorder can be caused by a multitude of aspects. In example, William
Lyddon and Alissa Sherry, authors of the article Developmental Personality Styles, elicit The
family history of individuals with an antisocial personality style is often marked by parental
hostility and probable abuse" (405). This means young adults may develop this disorder through
genetics or potential child abuse. Another
probable cause of this disorder can be the brain
chemistry of the individual, brain chemistry, and
negative experiences (Mayo Clinic Staff).
Social anxiety disorder has various causes in
which can be almost impossible to overcome, as
shown in figure 3. With the causes, there can
also be preventions and solutions to the
disorders. Schools try to help with making student take classes with many speech presentations
but, a study conducted by James McCroskey proved these classes are usually a very unpleasant,
anxiety-provoking experience, which accomplishes little at best and may make the situation
worse (14). Effective solutions involve psychological counseling and sometimes medicines
(such as antidepressants) to reduce related anxiety and depression (Colombia University
Figure 3. In this video, the causes of social anxiety disorder
are discussed (ModernCaveDweller.com).
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Medical Center). So with all the negatives that come with this disorder, shedding some light with
solutions is what may what these teens need.

The Participants
The respondents of my survey consisted of 25 Joliet West students and a student
attending JJC. 24 of the surveyors are seniors at Joliet West and the one attending JJC is a
sophomore in college. All the survey takers either have taken or currently are taking a Rhetoric
101 and 102 class. The participants also have all taken some sort of English class where many
presentations were required to be done within the course.

Methodology
The main goal of this study was to find out if students suffer from social anxiety,
as many claim is true, or if they are suffering from apprehensions. To conduct this test, I
produced a survey using Google Forms and distributed the survey to another rhetoric class by
posting my link to the class discussion board. I then collected the results and asked some
surveyors single handedly. I also created a scale in order to add the results of the surveys and see
if the participants fall under the category of social anxiety or apprehensions. I then recorded the
results and interpreted them into various data tables corresponding to the questions within the
survey.



Results
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Figure 4

What Caused Teens Most Anxiety
Teens were asked to rank what social actions caused them most anxiety on a scale from 1
to 5. The actions that made surveyors have the most anxiety was entering a room where others
are already seated. According to my results, as shown in figure 4, surveyors had highest ranks for
entering a room where others are already seated. Being question 9, it came in with a total of 87
total rankings.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
T
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Question number
Most Anxiety Triggering Actions
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Figure 5

Social Actions Most Comfortable for Teens
The most comfortable social action for teens is eating in public places. This question, or
question 3 in figure 5, was ranked the lowest anxiety triggering action coming in to 53 total
rankings. Comparing the lowest ranked social action, 53, to the highest social action, 87, there is
a range of a difference totaling to 34 ranks. It can be seen as to why teens are most comfortable
with eating in public because they are occupied with their food and pay little attention to the
factors surrounding them.




48
50
52
54
56
58
60
62
64
3 11 2 1
T
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Question Number
Most Comfortable Social Situations
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Figure 6

C
o
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relation Between two Similar
Results
Upon reviewing the questions and response ratings, there was a result of two tied
questions. Questions 5 and 10 have scored the same rating amount, as seen in figure 6. Question
5 asked acting, performing, or giving a talk in front of an audience and question 10 read being
center of attention. Thus would make sense that the two questions generated the same results
because both involve putting oneself out there and having everyones focus on themselves. Both
received a question rating of 84.

Scale of Number of Participants fell under Social Anxiety
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0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Question 5 Question 10
Question 5 and 10 Correlation
T
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Q
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Question Number
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Score 5-14 SAD unlikely
If performance in a particular situation, such as public speaking is impaired, could still meet
criteria for a diagnosis.
Score 15-33 SAD probable
Scores in this range are typical of persons entering treatment for the non-generalized type of
SAD.
Score 34-45 SAD very probable
Scores in this range are typical of persons entering treatment for the generalized type of SAD.
Score 46-60 or higher SAD extremely probable
Scores in this range often are accompanied by great distress and difficulty in social
functioning, and are also commonly seen in persons entering treatment for the generalized
type of SAD.

This scale was created in order to categorize the rankings of teens to see if they would
have the potential to have Social Anxiety Disorder. The average scale most of the teens scored
was a 31. This would fall under the 15-33 making most of the teens have a slightly probable
chance in having Social Anxiety Disorder. The highest score of all the survey takers was a 57
indicating they have an extremely high risk of having Social Anxiety, as shown in figure 7.
Discussion
This study investigated if teens have social anxiety or apprehensions and what is
causing these apprehensions. My research was successful in collecting data and answering my
investigation question. Reading my data, the teens of this generation do not potentially have
social anxiety and their fears are only apprehensions. Some factors can contribute to make the
results faulty. The first factor is not all the surveyors answered the 11 questions. One was left
blank and this question could affect my results in a minor way. The next factor is all the
surveyors are in their teens and were in a rhetoric class. There are mostly seniors and one
sophomore in college. This is harmful to my data because this will not allow for a wide variety
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of representation of the whole school. For other students, they might not have the same fears as
the seniors in rhetoric because some are outgoing and are involved in theatrical play and may be
outgoing with no probable apprehensions at all. The last factor to affect my data is my scale may
have inaccurate numbering. The numbering may either be too low or too high and this can affect
the results majorly in the sense of giving me wrong results.
Overall, mostly everyone in high school will be afraid to get out of their comfort zone.
Sometimes teens become comfortable with themselves as they get to know who they are; their
potential for social anxiety decreases. People with apprehensions can calm themselves down and
join acting classes or clubs to help them feel more comfortable with themselves. With social
anxiety affecting teens the most, it may help that they investigate more into the situation to
understand what they are going through. Sometimes, they may be comfortable with themselves
and have the slightest of apprehensions, which is completely normal.
Some drawback about my research were not being able to have more surveyors take part
in the survey as I would have liked. This could have collected more viewpoints of the student
body, making my results much more accurate.
If I had the opportunity to conduct this study again, I may decide to change some of the
questions. I would possibly include more apprehensive questions to collect a specific result in
terms of looking for apprehensions within teens; most of my questions were aimed towards
social anxiety.
In my survey, I did not include a wide variety of types of questions. I only asked for a
scale rating allowing the survey takers to have limited answer options. I should have mixed the
variation of questions, such as fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice. This could have helped my
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results because the answer choices could have been more understandable to some students and
they could have had a bigger range of options to choose from.
I believe this topic could help our society advance further if it were brought into focus.
People are even oblivious of this disorder, which is tragic because it has so much impact on the
advancement of our generation and the rest to follow. If more people were aware of this disorder,
they might bring comfort to the individuals who do have this disorder. This can also prevent
possible cases of this disorder in the future if more people were informed and cognizant about
the disorder. This can be a very easy problem to unravel, if only the time was taken to find the
resolution.














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Works Cited
Adi, Yasmin. Social Anxiety or Apprehensions". Survey. 18 March, 2014.
Amery, Mark. "Teenage Apprehensions at The New Dowse." Www.eyecontactsite.com. Creative
Commons, 22 July 2010. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Colombia University Medical Center. "Test for Social Anxiety Disorder." Social Anxiety
Research Clinic: n. pag. Social Anxiety Test. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Donald, Brooke. "Stanford research helps people with social phobia face their fears."
News.stanford.edu. Stanford University, 4 Sept. 2013. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.
Fitzgerald, Britney. "Social Media Is Causing Anxiety, Study Finds." TheHuffingtonPost.com.
Huffington Post, 11 July 2012. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Higuera, Valencia. "Social Anxiety Disorder." Healthline 2 July 2012: n. pag. elibrary. Web. 6
Mar. 2014.
Hollander, John. "Fear Itself." Social Research 4(2004):865. eLibrary. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Lyddon, William J., Sherry, Alissa. "Developmental personality styles: An attachment theory
conceptualization of personality disorders." Journal of Counseling and Development
4(2001):405. eLibrary. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Mayo Clinic Staff. "Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia)." Www.mayoclinic.org. Mayo
Clinic, 23 Aug. 2011. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
McCroskey, James C. "THE EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION ON
NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR." 26 Mar. 2012. Reading.
Paul, Alex. Daily Social Anxiety. Youtube.com. Mental Health Guru, n.d. Web. 17
Apr. 2014.
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Simmons, Charles. Causes of Social Anxiety Disorder. ModernCaveDweller.com.
N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
"Social Anxiety or Apprehensions." Studyingyouanddisorders.org. Brain and Behavior Research
Foundation, 9 Nov. 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Torevelle, Terri. "Anxiety UK study finds technology can increase anxiety." AnxietyUK.org.
Anxiety UK, 9 July 2012. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

















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Abstract
Teens: at War with Social Anxiety
Answer the following questions as honest as possible based on how comfortable and uncomfortable
each situation makes you feel. (1 being very comfortable and 5 being extremely uncomfortable).

Telephoning in public.

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Participating in small groups.

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Eating in public places

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Talking to people in authority.

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Acting, performing, or giving a talk in front of an audience.

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Working while being observed.

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Talking with people you dont know very well.

1 2 3 4 5

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Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Meeting strangers.

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Entering a room when others are already seated.

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Being center of attention

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Taking a test

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable
Looking at people you don't know very well in the eyes.

1 2 3 4 5

Very comfortable

Severely uncomfortable