Introduction:
Humans are naturally social creatures, however, the ability to interact effectively with others doesn’t come easily to all people, many find themselves in a situation of social embarrassment or awkwardness. Embarrassment is an emotional state that is associated with mild to severe levels of discomfort, and is usually experienced when someone has a socially unacceptable condition. Embarrassment can be personal, caused by unwanted attention to private matters or personal flaws or mishaps, but personal embarrassment can also stem from the actions of others who place the embarrassed person in a socially awkward situation like making comment about one's appearance or behavior, being rejected by another person, being made the focus of attention, or even witnessing someone else's embarrassment (Tangney, 1999). Social awkwardness is the feeling we experience when we believe that our desire for being accepted by others is threatened in a given situation. This feeling incites us to turn inward, increase our self-monitoring and attempt to behave in ways that will improve our chances for acceptance (Clegg, 2012). Such emotional responses are not necessarily bad, as they may serve an important function in revealing us certain values, we may not be aware of. By examining situations to which we react with embarrassment, one might gain awareness of valued features of we often tend to overlook (Purshouse, 2002). Social awkwardness is sometime confused with social anxiety, a personality mental health condition. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a defined medical condition that can cause severe social impairment, described as intense, recurrent state of emotional stress in social situations.
