Getting to Know Your Social Anxiety
43anxiety are the behavioral approach test  and behavioral role-play . These involve having a person 
enter a feared social situation (behavioral approach test) or act out a feared situation 
in a role-play (behavioral role-play) and having the person report his or her fear level, 
anxious thoughts, and other experiences.
Although these assessments are usually conducted by a psychologist, psychia -
trist, or other professional, each can be adapted to be part of your self-assessment. We 
 recommend that your assessment include the following three steps:
UÊConduct a self-interview. For example, answer important questions about 
your anxiety and related problems.
UÊComplete anxiety diaries. An example is the Three Components of Social 
Anxiety Monitoring Form included in chapter 1.
UÊComplete a behavioral approach test or role-play.
Conducting a Self-Interview
Any professional contact with a psychologist, psychiatrist, or other mental health 
professional typically begins with a clinical interview, during which the clinician asks the 
client or patient questions about his or her problems. The interview helps the clinician to 
identify the most important features of the problem and is a ﬁrst step toward developing 
an effective treatment plan. To be consistent with this goal, we suggest that you conduct 
a self-interview , in which you answer important questions about your problem.
To help you with this process, we have identiﬁed ten basic questions you should try 
to answer at the start of your self-assessment. The answers to these questions will help 
you to do the following: decide whether social anxiety is in fact a problem for you; iden -
tify the factors that contribute to your social anxiety; and choose the speciﬁc situations