Measuring Social Avoidance and Distress (SAD SCALE)

Watson & Friend (1969) developed the Social Avoidance and Distress (SAD) Scale to measure people’s aversion to social interaction. This scale measures the anxiety people feel in social situations and the extent to which they avoid these situations. Watson & Friend found that high scorers on the SAD Scale preferred not to participate in a group discussion and were more anxious about doing so than low scorers. They also found that SAD Scale scores correlated negatively with the drive towards affiliation. It appears to be a valid measure of social anxiety and avoidance.

The types of feelings measured by the SAD Scale are possibly feelings that lead to social phobias. Social phobias involve excessive fear of performing behaviors in front of people (Durand & Barstow, 2000). Some degree of evaluation anxiety is normal, but social phobias take normal anxiety to extremes. Social phobias make take such unusual forms as being unable to order a meal in a restaurant, avoiding meeting new people or dating, avoiding urinating in front of others (for men), or being unable to sign one’s name in public (Durand & Barstow, 2000). However, a high score on the SAD Scale does not automatically indicate a social phobia. Stage fright and speaking in front of people are common causes of social anxiety.

Count one point for each of your answers that match those below. The higher the score is on the scale, the greater the degree of one’s social discomfort.

The norms reported by Watson and Friend (1969) can be used to interpret your score:

Low / Intermediate / High
Men / = > 4 / = 4-19 / 20+
Women / = 0 / =1-16 / 17+

1.  F

2.  T

3.  F

4.  F

5.  T

6.  F

7.  F

8.  T

9.  F

10.  T

11.  T

12.  F

13.  T

14.  T

15.  F

16.  T

17.  F

18.  T

19.  F

20.  T

21.  T

22.  F

23.  T

24.  T

25.  F

26.  T

27.  F

28.  F

Durand, V.M., & Barlow, D.H. (2000). Abnormal psychology: An introduction (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Watson, D. & Friend, R. (1969). Measurement of social-evaluative anxiety. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 33, 448-457.