Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale

Social anxiety disorder is associated with an individual’s irrational fear towards any social situation and interaction. These people avoid being in contact with other people who might give them negative judgment or evaluation. In times like these, they often feel humiliated and uncomfortable which leads on to depression.

Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale is used by most clinical psychologists who are assessing the level of social interaction and performance situation of an individual who is diagnosed with symptoms of social anxiety disorder. This test consists of 24 items, 13 of which are related to performance anxiety while the remaining 11 concerns social situations.

Although the contents of the questionnaire used in Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale are casual and easy to understand, this measurement tool is not created for self-assessment. For more accurate and valid results, the test has to be administered by a clinical psychologist or therapist who can better diagnosed the level of social anxiety the person has.

In fact, Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale is often utilized to evaluate the efficiency of treatments and medications and not to detect the symptoms of social anxiety disorder. Each of the 24 items is rated by the patient separately from a range of 0 to 3. Thirteen items gauge the patient’s social fear by choosing which among the range of none, mild, moderate and severe best describes how he or she feels. The other 11 items gauge the patient’s avoidance behavior also with a range of 0 to 3 representing never, occasionally, often and usually in that order.

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