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Arousal Reappraisal and Social Anxiety

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The statement, “Motivating self and others is not so much a situational event to be solved in the moment as it is a developmental undertaking to build inner motivational resources over time”, is true. Motivation is something that needs development of the right tool and resources over time. One tool to help build inner motivational resources is the concept of appraisal. Appraisal is an estimate of the personal significance of an event (i.e. is this life event important?). This also means that appraisal, and not the event it self, causes how one feels and how one is motivated to act. For example, a person with social anxiety is scared to do anything with social interactions and therefore will not give a public speech. However, the development of the correct tools can motivate the individual with social anxiety disorder to give a public speech and get over their fear of public interactions.
Research on appraisal, specifically arousal reappraisal and social anxiety, found that reappraisal can help individuals with social anxiety feel less shame, anxiety and less avoidant when confronted with an emotionally charged stimulus. Reappraisal is the idea of coming back to an already formed thought about something, to reinterpret an already formed conclusion. Belterzer, Nock, Peters and Jamieson (2014) examined assays for salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) from individuals who had Social Anxiety Disorder by collecting their saliva. They examined saliva at baseline and after an

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