This article presents a self-presentation approach to the study of social anxiety that proposes that social anxiety arises when people are motivated to make a preferred impression on real or imagined audiences but doubt they will do so, and thus perceive or imagine unsatisfactory evaluative reactions from subjectively important audiences. We presume that specific situational and dispositional antecedents of social anxiety operate by influencing people's motivation to impress others and their expectations of satisfactorily doing so. In contrast to drive models of anxiety but consistent with social learning theory, it is argued that the cognitive state of the individual mediates both affective arousal and behavior. The traditional inverted-U relation between anxiety and performance is reexamined in this light. Implications of the approach for counseling situations are considered, especially the recommendation that treatments be tailored to the specific type of selfpresentational problem encountered by clients,

Responsibility acts as a psychological adhesive that connects an actor to an event and to relevant prescriptions that should govern conduct. People are held responsible to the extent that (a) a clear, well-defined set of prescriptions is applicable to an event (prescription-event link); (b) the actor is perceived to be bound by the prescriptions by virtue of his or her identity (prescription-identity link); and (c) the actor is connected to the event, especially by virtue of appearing to have personal control over it (identity-event link). Studies supported the model, showing that attributions of responsibility are a direct function of the combined strengths of the 3 linkages (Study 1) and that, when judging responsibility, people seek out information that is relevant to the linkages (Study 2). The model clarifies prior multiple meanings of responsibility and provides a coherent framework for understanding social judgment.

In two experiments, children of different ages judged actors who committed a transgression under conditions of low or high responsibility and low or high consequences (Experiment 1) and under conditions in which the actor's motives were good or bad and the act was intended or accidental (Experiment 2). The actor then either did nothing or employed one of three types of increasingly elaborate apologies. As hypothesized, the actor's predicament was most severe, producing the harshest judgments, when (a) the actor had high responsibility for committing an inadvertent act that produced high consequences (Experiment 1), and (b) the act was the result of a bad rather than good motive or was intended rather than accidental (Experiment 2). Also as expected, apologies were effective in reducing the negative repercussions for the actor; more elaborate apologies produced less blame, more forgiveness, more liking, more positive evaluations, attributions of greater remorse, and (usually) less punishment. The judgments of the older children (seventh graders) were more affected by the actor's apology than were the judgments of younger children (K/first graders). Consistent with the literature on social-cognitive development, these age differences appeared to reflect the younger children's poorer ability to integrate social information and appreciate the implications of social conventions. In general, however, the younger children's judgments were similar to those of the older children, which demonstrates that by the time they reach school age, children possess the ability to take into account the major factors (e.g., intentions, motives, apologies) that are deemed important in adult-like social judgment.Apologies are admissions of blameworthiness and regret for an undesirable event, for example, a transgression, a harmful act, an embarrassing incident. From a societal perspective, apologies are social conventions that perform a variety of important functions, including serving as recognition that rules have been broken, reaffirming the value of the rules, and controlling and regulatingWe wish to thank Bill Cliett of Fort Clarke Middle School, Robert van Winkle of Littlewood Elementary School, and Ruth Duncan of P. K. Yonge Laboratory School for their cooperation. The valuable comments of Lawrence J. Severy and Patricia Miller are appreciated.

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