The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale is used to assess what?

• A. Panic attack frequency.
• B. General functioning impairment.
• C. The severity of social anxiety disorder across fear, avoidance, and physiological symptoms.
• D. Overall anxiety severity only.

Answer: (C)

The core idea is measuring how severe social anxiety is, specifically in terms of fear in social situations, avoidance of those situations, and the physiological arousal that often accompanies anxiety. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale asks about fear and avoidance across social interactions and performance settings, with items rated to reflect both how distressed a person feels and how much they avoid each situation. The total score captures overall severity of social anxiety disorder, encompassing the emotional, behavioral, and physiological aspects of the condition. This differs from counting panic attacks, which targets panic disorder; from general impairment in functioning, which a separate functional scale would assess; or from overall anxiety severity across disorders, which would be measured by a broad anxiety scale rather than a social-specific one.