The Role of Social Anxiety in Self-Control Depletion Lyndsay A. Nelson, Jessica Williamson, & Ginette C. Blackhart East Tennessee State University Background Self-control is a limited resource that becomes weakened when engaging in processes requiring self-regulation (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000). Because socially anxious individuals engage in immense self-regulatory efforts in social situations, this may lead them to experience self-control depletion (Kashdan et al., 2011). The present research examined how social evaluation would impact the state self-control of socially anxious individuals. We hypothesized that social anxiety would predict state self-control, even when controlling for trait self-control. Participants Undergraduate Students n = 76 (61% women) M age = 22.22, SD = 7.59 Measures Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) (Mattick & Clarke, 1998) Trait Self-Control Scale (SCS) (Tangney et al., 2004) Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) (Paulhus, 1991) State Self-Control – Cookies Consumed Conclusions The higher participants’ social anxiety, the more cookies they ate following social evaluation. Furthermore, social anxiety predicted cookies consumed even when controlling for trait self-control. Impression management was negatively correlated with, but did not predict, cookies consumed. Results suggest that, following social evaluation, those who are socially anxious, will experience lowered self- control performance. If being evaluated in everyday lives, there are several negative implications concerning these individuals’ ability to self-regulate Future research should explore whether socially anxious individuals’ self-control is affected generally across interpersonal situations References Kashdan, T. B., Weeks, J. W., & Savostyanova, A. A. (2011). Whether, how, and when social anxiety shapes positive experiences and events: A self-regulatory framework and treatment implications. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(5), Muraven, M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2000). Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: Does self-control resemble a muscle?. Psychological Bulletin, 126(2), Participants first completed psychological measures Next, participants were told they would complete two separate studies: a psychological study assessing how well people perform under various pressures and a marketing study assessing preference for a particular kind of food Participants had 10 min to prepare a 5 min speech serving as a job interview. This speech was given in presence of two confederates acting as managers and was recorded on video camera After the speech task, participants were presented with 35 bite sized cookies and rating form. The number of cookies consumed served as the measure of self-control, where more cookies consumed reflected lower self-control Last, participants completed a demographics questionnaire and funnel debriefing before exiting the lab Method Send correspondence about this research to Lyndsay Nelson at SCS – 2. SIAS -0.42***– 3. BIDR 0.52***-0.20*– 4. Cookies -0.28**0.32**-0.30**– Mean SD Results The number of cookies consumed was significantly correlated with trait self- control, social interaction anxiety, and impression management. A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted with trait self-control entered at Step 1 and social anxiety and impression management entered at Step 2. The total variance explained by the model as a whole was 17%, F(3,72) = 4.43, p <.05. In the final model, only social anxiety significantly predicted cookies consumed β∆F∆R 2 Step *.08* SCS -.28* Step **.09* SCS -.05 BIDR -.22 SIAS.26* Total R 2.17* Note: * p <.05, * * p <.01, *** p <.001