Join BRITE Ideas as we welcome Steven G. Buzinski, Teaching Associate Professor, Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Karen M. Gil Internship Director in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Buzinski will discuss the basics of social anxiety, how it might influence students in our increasingly active classrooms, and present findings from three empirical studies investigating the relationship between social anxiety and students’ experience of active learning techniques. Prevalence rates of social anxiety appear to be higher in college than at later times in life (Heimberg, Stein, Hiripi, & Kessler, 2000), and while social anxiety has been studied thoroughly in the context of mental health outcomes (e.g., loneliness, substance abuse), its role in the active learning classroom has not been adequately explored. Socially anxious individuals tend to feel higher levels of distress in situations with the potential for negative social evaluation, a tendency that has been shown to increase anxiety-responses (e.g., sweating, flushing) and distract from present awareness (Brown & Ryan, 2003).

Please feel free to bring your lunch. Light refreshments will be provided.