Social avoidance and distress: its relationship to self-confidence, and needs for affiliation, change, dominance, and deference.

Introductory psychology students (N = 289) completed questionnaires to assess levels of Social Avoidance and Distress (SAD), as well as scales to measure self-confidence (S-Cfd), need for Affiliation (nAff), need for Change (nCha), need for Dominance (nDom), and need for Deference (nDef). As a function of SAD, significant differences were revealed on all dependent measures. Persons who exhibited higher levels of SAD had lower levels of S-Cfd, nAff, nCha, and nDom, while they exhibited higher levels of nDef. People distressed by social interaction are likely to be less self-confident and to exhibit lower needs for affiliation, change, and dominance, while they exhibited a stronger need to defer to others' judgments and opinions.