Interaction Anxiousness Scale

1. Abstract

The Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS) is a prominent 15-item self-report psychometric instrument developed by social psychologist Mark R. Leary in 1983 to assess the subjective, affective-cognitive tendency to experience social anxiety independently of overt behavioral impairment. Grounded in the self-presentation theory of social anxiety, the scale was engineered to resolve long-standing conceptual and empirical conflations in clinical, personality, and social psychological research between the emotional experience of social anxiety and behavioral manifestations such as behavioral avoidance, social reticence, speech dysfluency, or conversational awkwardness. The instrument focuses explicitly on interpersonal, contingent interactions (e.g., casual gatherings, dating scenarios, conversations with authority figures, and spontaneous peer dialogues) rather than audience-based, formal performance scenarios (such as public speaking or stage performance), which are assessed separately by complementary metrics like the Audience Anxiousness Scale (AAS).

The IAS employs a 5-point Likert response scale ranging from 1 (“Not at all characteristic of me”) to 5 (“Extremely characteristic of me”). Psychometrically, the instrument demonstrates high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha typically ranging from .87 to .91 across diverse adult and collegiate cohorts) and robust temporal stability (test-retest reliability coefficients between .79 and .82 over intervals spanning eight weeks to four months). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses robustly substantiate a stable unidimensional structure representing dispositional interaction anxiousness, with reverse-scored items counteracting acquiescence response bias. Extensive construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity studies confirm that the IAS correlates predictably with general social avoidance and distress, fear of negative evaluation, public self-consciousness, and neuroticism, while remaining conceptually and empirically distinct from behavioral disinhibition and introversion. Today, the IAS remains an international gold-standard assessment tool across clinical psychology, psychiatry, organizational communication, behavioral science, and experimental social psychology.

2. Keywords

Interaction Anxiousness Scale, social anxiety, Mark R. Leary, self-presentation theory, social phobia, interpersonal interaction, psychometrics, social distress, fear of negative evaluation, subjective anxiety, behavioral avoidance, trait anxiety

3. Authors

The Interaction Anxiousness Scale was conceptualized, operationalized, and psychometrically validated by Mark R. Leary, Ph.D., an internationally distinguished social and personality psychologist. Dr. Leary received his doctorate in social psychology from the University of Florida in 1980 under the mentorship of Barry R. Schlenker. At the time of the scale’s initial development and seminal 1983 publication in the Journal of Personality Assessment, Dr. Leary served on the academic faculty within the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and later continued his research program at Wake Forest University. He subsequently served as the Garonzik Family Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, where he directed the Social Psychology Program until his transition to emeritus status.

Subsequent psychometric expansion and extensive criterion-related and construct validation of the IAS were conducted in close empirical collaboration with Robin M. Kowalski, Ph.D., Centennial Professor of Psychology at Clemson University. Together, Leary and Kowalski produced foundational empirical treatises and authoritative monographs, including their seminal 1993 validation study in the Journal of Personality Assessment and their definitive 1995 academic volume, Social Anxiety, published by The Guilford Press. Inquiries regarding original scale development and psychometric archival permissions are typically directed to Dr. Mark R. Leary via the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

4. Purpose

The primary purpose of the Interaction Anxiousness Scale is to measure an individual’s chronic, dispositional tendency to experience subjective anxiety—characterized by cognitive apprehension, physiological arousal, and affective discomfort—in interpersonal, contingent social encounters. In the psychometric landscape of the late 1970s and early 1980s, existing assessment instruments frequently conflated subjective anxiety with overt behavioral execution. For instance, classic scales such as Watson and Friend’s (1969) Social Avoidance and Distress (SAD) scale aggregated the internal affective state of being distressed with actual physical avoidance or social withdrawal. Leary identified this conflation as a profound methodological flaw: an individual may experience severe internal anxiety yet remain socially poised, outgoing, and communicative due to high self-monitoring, social responsibility, or professional obligation; conversely, another individual might display social reticence, quietness, or solitary habits due to introversion, anhedonia, or low affiliation motivation without experiencing subjective panic or apprehension.

Consequently, the IAS was intentionally designed to isolate the subjective, emotional-affective dimension of social anxiety from overt behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, the IAS addresses a critical situational boundary by isolating interaction anxiety from performance anxiety (audience anxiety). Interaction anxiety arises within contingent interpersonal dialogues—such as mingling at informal social gatherings, speaking with unfamiliar peers, conversing with romantic or sexual interests, and interacting with workplace supervisors or academic authorities—where behavioral demands are dynamic, reciprocal, and unpredictable. In contrast, performance anxiety occurs in passive, non-contingent contexts (such as public lectures, stage recitals, or artistic exhibitions) where one performs in front of an audience without reciprocal conversational turn-taking.

The clinical and research applications of the IAS are extensive:

• Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment Monitoring: In psychiatric and clinical psychology settings, the IAS serves as a sensitive diagnostic baseline and outcome measure for Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) under DSM-5 and ICD-11 criteria. It allows clinicians to monitor whether cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), or pharmacotherapy specifically reduce internal affective distress, distinct from whether patients engage in scheduled social exposure exercises.
• Experimental Social Psychology: Laboratory investigators frequently deploy the IAS as a screening instrument to examine how high versus low trait-anxious individuals process social threat, allocate attentional resources, interpret ambiguous conversational cues, and respond physiologically to social stress paradigms (e.g., structured dyadic get-acquainted interactions).
• Organizational and Communication Research: Human resources professionals and organizational behavior researchers utilize the scale to investigate interpersonal communication barriers, leadership development, employee assertiveness during performance evaluations, and communication apprehension within collaborative corporate environments.
• Educational Psychology: The IAS helps identify students experiencing social apprehension when approaching instructors, asking questions during seminars, or integrating into university residence life, thereby guiding targeted academic and counseling interventions.

5. Psychological Construct

The psychological construct operationalized by the Interaction Anxiousness Scale is dispositional interaction anxiety (social anxiousness). In contemporary psychometrics and clinical theory, social anxiety is understood as a multidimensional phenomenon encompassing affective, physiological, cognitive, and behavioral facets. However, Leary’s construct definition strictly demarcates the internal psychological experience—the subjective affective response—as the core operational core of trait social anxiousness.

Affective and Physiological Dimensions

Affectively, interaction anxiousness is characterized by emotional tension, nervousness, uneasiness, and distress experienced when anticipating or engaging in interpersonal encounters. Physiologically, this affective state is accompanied by sympathetic autonomic nervous system arousal, including tachycardia, peripheral vasoconstriction, gastrointestinal churning, trembling, hyperventilation, and cutaneous flushing (blushing). Items on the IAS such as “I often feel nervous even in casual get-togethers” and “Parties often make me feel anxious and uncomfortable” tap directly into this recurring affective reactivity across unstructured or semi-structured social contexts.

Cognitive Apprehension and Self-Focused Attention

Cognitively, interaction anxiousness involves hypervigilance regarding social performance, acute self-focused attention, and negative metacognitions. Individuals with elevated levels of interaction anxiousness perceive ongoing conversational demands as fraught with the hazard of social disapproval, negative appraisal, or embarrassment. For example, item 9 (“I wish I had more confidence in social situations”) reflects the cognitive self-doubt and perceived deficit in interpersonal efficacy that chronically preoccupies socially anxious individuals during dyadic exchanges.

Situational Contingencies of the Construct

The IAS operationalizes interaction anxiousness across four primary interpersonal domains that historically evoke social-evaluative threat:

• Unfamiliar Peers and Strangers: Engaging with unacquainted persons presents high ambiguity and evaluative uncertainty (e.g., Item 2: “I usually feel comfortable when I’m in a group of people I don’t know” [reversed]; Item 7: “I sometimes feel tense when talking to people of my own sex if I don’t know them very well”).
• Cross-Sex and Romantic Dyads: Encounters with potential romantic partners or individuals of the opposite sex typically activate heightened impression motivation and fear of rejection (e.g., Item 3: “I am usually at ease when speaking to a member of the other sex” [reversed]; Item 12: “I often feel nervous when talking to an attractive member of the opposite sex”).
• Status and Authority Asymmetries: Interacting with institutional superiors, supervisors, or evaluators involves explicit power differentials and formal scrutiny (e.g., Item 4: “I get nervous when I must talk to a teacher or a boss”; Item 8: “I would be nervous if I was being interviewed for a job”; Item 14: “I get nervous when I speak to someone in a position of authority”).
• Unscripted Interpersonal Communication: Mediated or spontaneous conversational openings that lack nonverbal feedback or scripted responses heighten evaluation apprehension (e.g., Item 13: “I often feel nervous when calling someone I don’t know very well on the telephone”).

Demarcation from Behavioral Manifestations (Shyness and Reticence)

A cornerstone of Leary’s conceptualization is that interaction anxiousness must not be conflated with shyness or reticence. Shyness is historically defined as a behavioral syndrome characterized by social inhibition, silence, gaze aversion, and withdrawal. Leary demonstrated that although interaction anxiousness is a major etiology of shy behavior, the two constructs are not isomorphic. High-anxiety individuals frequently force themselves to behave in a socially engaged, articulate manner despite acute internal discomfort. By measuring only the subjective affective state, the IAS cleanly isolates internal distress from overt coping behaviors.

6. Theoretical Framework

The Interaction Anxiousness Scale is fundamentally anchored in the Self-Presentation Theory of Social Anxiety, formulated by Mark R. Leary and Barry R. Schlenker (Leary, 1983; Schlenker & Leary, 1982). Drawing upon Erving Goffman’s sociological analysis of impression management, self-presentation theory posits that human beings possess an innate, evolutionary-driven motivation to monitor and control how they are perceived and evaluated by real, imagined, or implied others.

The Core Mathematical/Conceptual Proposition

According to self-presentation theory, social anxiety is not merely a generalized reaction to interpersonal presence; rather, it arises specifically when two conditions co-occur:

1. High Impression Motivation: Individuals are motivated to make a particular, favorable impression on others (e.g., to be viewed as competent, likable, attractive, intelligent, or socially adept), AND
2. Low Impression Efficacy (Subjective Doubt): Individuals doubt that they will successfully project that desired impression, expecting that their self-presentational efforts will fail or lead to unfavorable, discrediting evaluations.

Formally, social anxiousness can be conceptualized as a function of impression motivation multiplied by impression doubt:

Social Anxiety = f(Impression Motivation × Subjective Probability of Self-Presentational Failure)

When impression motivation is absent (i.e., the individual is completely unconcerned with what the audience thinks), social anxiety cannot occur, regardless of how hostile the environment may be. Conversely, if impression motivation is high but the individual possesses absolute self-efficacy regarding their ability to charm, persuade, or impress the other person, anxiety remains dormant. Only when an individual deeply desires to convey an impression but anticipates presentational failure—such as saying the wrong thing, appearing foolish, experiencing a tremor, or being rejected—does interaction anxiety activate.

Contingency in Dyadic and Group Interactions

The self-presentation framework explains why contingent interactions are uniquely threatening. Unlike a scripted stage performance where one’s lines are predetermined, dyadic interactions require instantaneous, reciprocal social tuning. The participant must continually decode subtle nonverbal cues, mirror conversational rhythm, respond to unexpected queries, and regulate emotional expression in real time. Under conditions of low impression efficacy, every conversational turn poses a renewed threat of catastrophic social devaluation.

This formulation directly influenced the development of the 15 items of the IAS. The scale systematically measures situations where impression motivation is acutely elevated—job interviews (Item 8), conversations with workplace superiors or academic evaluators (Items 4, 14), and romantic encounters (Items 3, 12)—paired with situations where unstructured social demands leave individuals vulnerable to self-presentational vulnerability (Items 1, 5, 7, 13).

7. Validity

The Interaction Anxiousness Scale has been subjected to exhaustive empirical testing across clinical, non-clinical, collegiate, and multicultural cohorts, establishing robust construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity.

Construct and Convergent Validity

Leary’s seminal 1983 study and Leary and Kowalski’s comprehensive 1993 validation demonstrated strong convergent validity with established measures of social-evaluative distress. The IAS correlates substantially with:

• Watson and Friend’s Social Avoidance and Distress (SAD) Scale: Correlation coefficients consistently range between r = .71 and r = .79 (p < .001), indicating that the IAS captures the distress dimension of traditional social anxiety scales.
• Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation (BFNE) Scale: Correlations typically fall between r = .58 and r = .68 (p < .001), confirming that cognitive fear of social disapproval is tightly coupled with trait interaction anxiety.
• Fenigstein, Scheier, and Buss’s Public Self-Consciousness Subscale: The IAS correlates moderately to strongly (r = .40 to .52, p < .001) with public self-consciousness, reflecting the heightened acute awareness of the self as a social object. In contrast, it demonstrates negligible correlations with private self-consciousness (r = .06 to .14), demonstrating that internal introspection alone does not produce interaction anxiety.
• Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) / Big Five Neuroticism: The IAS correlates positively with general neuroticism / negative emotionality (r = .38 to .46), while correlating negatively with Extraversion (r = -.45 to -.55).

Discriminant Validity

A pivotal psychometric achievement of the IAS is its established discriminant validity from overt behavioral measures and audience/performance anxiety:

• Differentiation from Audience Anxiousness: Leary (1983) administered both the IAS and the Audience Anxiousness Scale (AAS) alongside situational behavioral tests. While the two scales correlate moderately (r = .45 to .54), factor analyses routinely separate them into distinct dimensions. Furthermore, in laboratory experiments involving public speaking vs. dyadic get-acquainted interactions, the IAS uniquely predicts heart rate elevation and self-reported nervousness during dyadic conversations, whereas the AAS uniquely predicts distress prior to public speeches.
• Separation from Social Skill Deficits: Empirical investigations have shown that high IAS scores do not necessarily correlate with objective deficits in social intelligence or interpersonal competence. Highly socially anxious participants assessed on the IAS frequently score normally on objective conversational skill rubrics when evaluated by blind observers, verifying that the scale captures perceived distress rather than objective behavioral incompetence.

Criterion and Predictive Validity

Criterion-related validity has been demonstrated in diverse laboratory and real-world paradigms:

• Physiological Reactivity: Leary and Kowalski (1993) documented that during unstructured dyadic laboratory interactions with opposite-sex confederates, participants with high IAS scores exhibited statistically significant elevations in pulse rate, blood pressure, and skin conductance compared to low IAS scorers.
• Information Processing and Attentional Bias: High IAS scorers exhibit profound selective attention toward threatening social cues (e.g., critical or bored facial expressions) in emotional Stroop and dot-probe tasks, as well as catastrophic post-event rumination following social interactions.
• Clinical Differentiation: The IAS reliably discriminates clinical outpatients diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder from patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and non-clinical control groups.

8. Reliability

The Interaction Anxiousness Scale exhibits exceptional reliability across diverse populations, age groups, and cultural translations.

Internal Consistency

In the original validation study comprising multiple university samples totaling 638 undergraduate students, Leary (1983) reported Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from α = .87 to .89. In their extensive 1993 replication involving 1,027 participants across two geographic sites, Leary and Kowalski confirmed an internal consistency coefficient of α = .89. Subsequent psychometric evaluations across varied demographic groups (e.g., working adults, clinical outpatients, and international university samples) have consistently documented Cronbach’s alpha values between .86 and .91, demonstrating that the 15 items form a cohesive, highly homogenous scale without item redundancies.

Temporal Stability (Test-Retest Reliability)

Because the IAS is designed to assess a stable personality disposition (trait anxiousness) rather than a transient emotional state (state anxiety), test-retest reliability is a critical benchmark:

• Eight-Week Interval: In the original test-retest investigations published by Leary (1983), a cohort of college students was retested after an eight-week interval, yielding a test-retest correlation coefficient of r = .82 (p < .001).
• Sixteen-Week (Four-Month) Interval: In a longitudinal study tracking participants over an entire academic semester (16 weeks), the IAS retained a stability coefficient of r = .79 (p < .001), indicating remarkable stability across substantial life transitions.
• Short-Term Stability: Shorter test-retest intervals (2 to 3 weeks) in clinical trial baseline washouts regularly report reliability coefficients exceeding r = .88.

Item-Total Correlations and Standard Error

Corrected item-total correlations across the 15 items generally range between .45 and .73, with no item falling below the accepted psychometric threshold of .30. The standard error of measurement (SEM) of the IAS is correspondingly low (approximately 2.8 to 3.2 on the total 15–75 scale), affording clinicians high confidence when assessing real change in social anxiety across longitudinal treatment protocols.

9. Factor Analysis

Extensive exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) have confirmed that the Interaction Anxiousness Scale is fundamentally characterized by a robust unidimensional factor structure.

Original Exploratory Factor Analysis (Leary, 1983)

In the scale’s initial psychometric derivation, Leary conducted a principal components analysis with varimax and oblique rotations on an initial pool of 24 candidate items. The analysis revealed a dominant primary factor accounting for the vast majority of the common variance (eigenvalue > 5.4, explaining over 36% of the total variance in the unreduced matrix). Items loading cleanly on this single factor shared the central theme of subjective emotional distress during contingency-based social encounters. Nine items were eliminated due to low primary loadings (< .40), cross-loadings on performance-anxiety factors, or excessive behavioral content. The retained 15 items exhibited primary factor loadings ranging from .46 to .76.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Model Fit

Later psychometric investigations utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) and confirmatory factor analysis (e.g., Leary & Kowalski, 1993; Carleton et al., 2007) evaluated competing structural models, specifically testing:

1. A single-factor unidimensional model where all 15 items load on a general Interaction Anxiousness construct.
2. A two-factor model dividing positively worded items (anxiety present) and negatively worded, reverse-scored items (social comfort / anxiety absent).
3. A multidimensional model separating encounters by partner type (strangers, opposite-sex peers, authorities).

The findings consistently indicate that while a two-factor method model (separating straightforward and reverse-scored items) sometimes yields a statistically marginal improvement in chi-square statistics due to well-known method artifacts associated with reverse coding, the substantive unidimensional model represents the most parsimonious and theoretically coherent representation. Standard CFA goodness-of-fit indices for the single-factor model with method effect corrections include:

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI) ≥ .94 to .97
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) ≥ .93 to .96
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) ≤ .048 to .062 (with 90% confidence intervals within acceptable ranges)
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) ≤ .045

Item Factor Loadings

Representative standardized factor loadings (λ) from confirmatory factor analytic studies are presented below:

• Item 1 (“casual get-togethers”): λ = .64 to .71
• Item 2 (“group of people I don’t know” [reversed]): λ = .58 to .67
• Item 3 (“at ease speaking to member of the other sex” [reversed]): λ = .51 to .62
• Item 4 (“talk to a teacher or boss”): λ = .61 to .69
• Item 5 (“parties make me feel anxious”): λ = .72 to .78
• Item 6 (“less shy in social interactions” [reversed]): λ = .60 to .68
• Item 7 (“tense talking to own sex”): λ = .47 to .56
• Item 8 (“interviewed for a job”): λ = .48 to .58
• Item 9 (“wish I had more confidence”): λ = .68 to .75
• Item 10 (“seldom feel anxious” [reversed]): λ = .69 to .76
• Item 11 (“in general, a shy person”): λ = .73 to .81
• Item 12 (“talking to attractive member of opposite sex”): λ = .54 to .64
• Item 13 (“calling someone on telephone”): λ = .46 to .55
• Item 14 (“position of authority”): λ = .65 to .73
• Item 15 (“feel relaxed around other people” [reversed]): λ = .62 to .70

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Instrument Name: Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS)
• Author: Mark R. Leary, Ph.D. (with subsequent validations by Robin M. Kowalski, Ph.D.)
• Publication Year: 1983 (seminal scale); 1993 (extended validation)
• Instrument Type: Self-report psychometric rating scale
• Construct Measured: Trait interaction anxiousness (subjective affective and cognitive distress in interpersonal, contingent social encounters)
• Item Count: 15 items
• Administration Format: Paper-and-pencil questionnaire, computerized survey, or secure online clinical assessment
• Administration Time: Approximately 3 to 5 minutes
• Target Population: Adolescents and adults (ages 14 and older)
• Response Scale: 5-point Likert scale formatted as:
  • 1 = Not at all characteristic of me.
  • 2 = Slightly characteristic of me.
  • 3 = Moderately characteristic of me.
  • 4 = Very characteristic of me.
  • 5 = Extremely characteristic of me.
• Scoring and Directionality:
  • Straightforward Items (10 items): Items 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 14 are keyed positively in the direction of high interaction anxiousness. They are scored directly: 1 = 1, 2 = 2, 3 = 3, 4 = 4, 5 = 5.
  • Reverse-Scored Items (5 items): Items 2, 3, 6, 10, and 15 reflect social comfort, relaxation, or absence of shyness. They must be reverse-coded prior to computing the total score: 1 = 5, 2 = 4, 3 = 3, 4 = 2, 5 = 1.
  • Total Score Calculation: Sum the scores of all 15 items after recoding reverse items. Total scores range from a minimum of 15 to a maximum of 75.
• Normative Data and Score Interpretation:
  • Non-Clinical Adult / College Norms: Mean total scores typically range between 38.0 and 41.5 with standard deviations of approximately 9.0 to 10.5. Women occasionally score 1 to 2 points higher on average than men, though effect sizes are small (Cohen’s d < .20).
  • Low Interaction Anxiousness (Scores 15 – 30): Characteristic of individuals who experience minimal to no subjective apprehension during social encounters; marked by ease, social self-efficacy, and comfort across varied interpersonal contexts.
  • Moderate / Average Interaction Anxiousness (Scores 31 – 49): Represents normal situational apprehension experienced in higher-stakes interpersonal contexts (e.g., job interviews, meeting prominent authorities, high-value dating) without pervasive disruption of daily social life.
  • High Interaction Anxiousness (Scores 50 – 60): Indicates substantial dispositional social anxiety; frequent subjective distress in routine social gatherings, phone calls, and casual peer conversations. Suggestive of clinically significant social inhibition.
  • Very High / Severe Interaction Anxiousness (Scores 61 – 75): Reflects debilitating subjective anxiety across virtually all contingent social encounters. Strong clinical indicator warranting formal evaluation for Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia) and targeted psychological intervention.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Interaction Anxiousness Scale was first published in 1983 by Dr. Mark R. Leary in the Journal of Personality Assessment. In accordance with Dr. Leary’s scholarly commitment to open scientific dissemination, the scale is placed in the public domain for academic, clinical, and non-commercial research purposes. Dr. Leary has historically made the instrument, its scoring instructions, and accompanying psychometric information freely available to researchers and clinicians via his academic faculty website at Duke University.

Licensing and Fee Structure:

• Academic and Non-Commercial Research: Free of charge. Researchers may reproduce, translate, and administer the IAS in empirical investigations, dissertations, theses, and educational coursework without formal written permission or royalty fees, provided that appropriate scholarly attribution is cited (Leary, 1983; Leary & Kowalski, 1993).
• Clinical Practice: Free of charge for individual clinical assessments, diagnostic screenings, and patient progress monitoring by licensed mental health professionals.
• Commercial and Digital Product Applications: Entities seeking to incorporate the IAS into commercial software, for-profit mobile applications, enterprise diagnostic batteries, or fee-for-service psychometric portals should contact the copyright holders and the original publisher (Taylor & Francis / Society for Personality Assessment) to secure formal commercial licensing agreements.

12. References

The following authoritative peer-reviewed publications and books document the development, validation, theoretical foundations, and psychometric properties of the Interaction Anxiousness Scale:

• Carleton, R. N., Collimore, K. C., & Asmundson, G. J. (2007). Social anxiety and self-presentation: An examination of the Interaction Anxiousness Scale and the Audience Anxiousness Scale. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 21(4), 586–597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.08.005
• Fenigstein, A., Scheier, M. F., & Buss, A. H. (1975). Public and private self-consciousness: Assessment and theory. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 43(4), 522–527. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076760
• Leary, M. R. (1983). Social anxiousness: The construct and its measurement. Journal of Personality Assessment, 47(1), 66–75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4701_8
• Leary, M. R. (1983). Understanding Social Anxiety: Social, Personality, and Clinical Perspectives. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE Publications.
• Leary, M. R., & Kowalski, R. M. (1993). The Interaction Anxiousness Scale: Construct and criterion-related validity. Journal of Personality Assessment, 61(1), 136–146. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6101_10
• Leary, M. R., & Kowalski, R. M. (1995). Social Anxiety. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
• Schlenker, B. R., & Leary, M. R. (1982). Social anxiety and self-presentation: A conceptualization and model. Psychological Bulletin, 92(3), 641–669. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.92.3.641
• Watson, D., & Friend, R. (1969). Measurement of social-evaluative anxiety. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 33(4), 448–457. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0027806

13. Items of the Scale (Questionnaire)