A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Bivalent Fear of Evaluation Model for Social Anxiety

“From meta-analysis to meta-interpretations and implications”: Fears of positive and negative evaluation and the bivalent fear of evaluation model of social anxiety.

“…The exemplary work of Cook et al (2022) has provided additional support for the BFOE model, and included participants spanning five countries and 10's of 1,000's of measurements of FPE, FNE, and social anxiety (see Cook et al, 2022, see their Table 3). Nevertheless, as noted previously, findings that have been published in languages other than English (e.g., Arabic, Dutch, Mandarin Chinese, Persian, e.g., see Fredrick & Luebbe, 2020 for a review; Japanese, e.g., see Okawa et al, 2021;and Korean, Okawa et al, 2021) require further integration and examination to better fine-tune the BFOE model. Again, interested readers are referred to Okawa et al (2021) for an initial cross-cultural evaluation of the BFOE model of social anxiety, which was published after the updated electronic database search by Cook et al…”

“…Nevertheless, an inclusion criterion of Cook et al was that articles be published in the English language (although some of the findings reviewed by Cook et al were English reports of findings acquired via translations/administrations of measures in languages other than English [German, Portuguese]) 1 —while this was an entirely reasonable inclusion criterion for a systematic review and meta-analysis, it bears noting that measures of FPE and FNE (as well as social anxiety) have been translated into numerous languages at this point, with many of the findings from those translations having been reported in languages other than English. As just some examples of findings which were not published in English and therefore were not reviewed by Cook et al, measures of FPE and FNE have been translated into Arabic, Dutch, Mandarin Chinese, Persian (e.g., see Fredrick & Luebbe, 2020 for a review), Japanese (e.g., see Okawa et al, 2021), and Korean (Okawa et al, 2021), and findings relevant to the BFOE model have been published in these various languages. Indeed, interested readers are referred to Okawa et al (2021) for an initial cross-cultural evaluation of the BFOE model of social anxiety, which was published after the updated electronic database search by Cook and colleagues.…”

“…As just some examples of findings which were not published in English and therefore were not reviewed by Cook et al, measures of FPE and FNE have been translated into Arabic, Dutch, Mandarin Chinese, Persian (e.g., see Fredrick & Luebbe, 2020 for a review), Japanese (e.g., see Okawa et al, 2021), and Korean (Okawa et al, 2021), and findings relevant to the BFOE model have been published in these various languages. Indeed, interested readers are referred to Okawa et al (2021) for an initial cross-cultural evaluation of the BFOE model of social anxiety, which was published after the updated electronic database search by Cook and colleagues.…”

Fear of positive evaluation differentially predicts social anxiety: a six-month longitudinal panel study

“…Second, since the majority of studies were conducted in Western countries, the generalizability of findings is limited (Fredrick & Luebbe, 2020 ). In support of this concern, Okawa et al ( 2021 ) showed that while individuals in collectivistic countries (e.g., Japan and South Korea) report more FNE, FPE is higher in individualistic countries (e.g., Australia and the United States). Moreover, Okawa et al ( 2021 ) found FPE directly predicts social anxiety in only individualistic countries.…”

“…In support of this concern, Okawa et al ( 2021 ) showed that while individuals in collectivistic countries (e.g., Japan and South Korea) report more FNE, FPE is higher in individualistic countries (e.g., Australia and the United States). Moreover, Okawa et al ( 2021 ) found FPE directly predicts social anxiety in only individualistic countries. These findings suggest that more studies from non-western countries have the potential to contribute to the literature.…”