“…Further, the available prospective findings in adults suggests that interpersonal variables (e.g., loneliness, friendship quality) prospectively predict social anxiety severity far more so than social anxiety severity predicts interpersonal variables (Lim, Rodebaugh, Zyphur, & Gleeson, 2016; Rapee, Peters, Carpenter, & Gaston, 2015; Rodebaugh, Lim, Shumaker, Levinson, & Thompson, 2015). Further, although interpersonal therapy modified from treatments with depression showed somewhat limited effects for SAD (Lipsitz et al, 2008), recent tests of combining exposure-like exercises with either intimacy-building (Alden & Taylor, 2011) or practicing kindness (Trew & Alden, 2015) may have promise in treating SAD. We believe it would be premature to conclude that SAD has no effect on interpersonal functioning beyond self-perception, but it now seems clear that interpersonal functioning has a much stronger effect on SAD than vice versa.…”