scholarly journals Self-Focused Cognition in Social Anxiety: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice R. Norton ◽  
Maree J. Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Similar Process ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
Growing Body

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterised by a marked and persistent fear of social or performance situations. Cognitive models suggest that self-focused cognitive processes play a crucial role in generating and maintaining social anxiety, and that self-focused cognition occurs prior to, during, and following social situations (Clark & Wells, 1995; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997). There is a substantial body of empirical evidence demonstrating that socially anxious individuals engage in self-focused cognition during and following a social or performance situation. A smaller but growing body literature suggests that a similar process occurs prior to such situations, and that these three processes are interdependent. Furthermore, the vast majority of research to date indicates that self-focused cognitive processes are detrimental, and that they generate and maintain social anxiety in a variety of ways. However, there remains considerable scope for research to further explicate the role of these processes in the maintenance of SAD, and to enhance interventions designed to ameliorate their negative effects.

Interpretations for Safety Behaviours in High and Low Socially Anxious Individuals

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanos P. Vassilopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Normal Level ◽  
Psychological Problem ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Emotional Condition

Background: It has been suggested that socially anxious individuals often engage in a wide range of safety behaviours in social situations that are intended to reduce the risk of social failure and humiliation. Method: This study explored the interpretations that people make for behaviours considered to be safety seeking. High and low socially anxious individuals completed one version of a questionnaire that assessed how the safety behaviours that they may exhibit are interpreted by others, and then completed a second version of the same questionnaire that assessed how they typically interpret safety behaviours in other people. Participants rated the extent to which each of eight interpretations was viewed as a likely interpretation of the behaviour. Results: Individuals high in social anxiety were more likely than low socially anxious participants to think that being arrogant, suffering from a psychological problem, or experiencing a normal level of anxiety, nervousness or fear are likely explanations for safety behaviours, regardless of who exhibits them. Additionally, high socially anxious participants were more likely than those low in social anxiety to think that others interpreted these behaviours as being indicative of intense anxiety or other negative emotional condition. Conclusions: The results suggested that socially anxious people are, at least, aware of the negative effects of certain behaviours characterized as safety seeking.

The Potential of Video Game Streaming as Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (CHI PLAY) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Julian Frommel ◽  
Martin J. Dechant ◽  
Regan L. Mandryk
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Exposure Therapy ◽  
Cognitive Restructuring ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Controlled Exposure ◽  
Anxiety Treatment ◽  
Social Anxieties ◽  
And Performance

Social anxiety is a prevalent problem that affects many people with varying severity; digital exposure therapy-which involves controlled exposure to simulations of feared social situations alongside cognitive restructuring-can help treat patients with anxieties. However, the need to personalize exposure scenarios and simulate audiences are barriers to treating social anxieties through digital exposure. In this paper, we propose game streaming as an exposure therapy paradigm for social anxiety, supporting it with data from two studies. We first propose a framework describing requirements for exposure therapy and how game streaming can fulfill them. We select demand and performance visibility from these characteristics to showcase how to manipulate them for experiences of gradual exposure. With Study 1, we provide evidence for these characteristics and support for the framework by showing that a game's demand affected expected fear of streaming games. In Study 2, we show that the prospect of streaming led to elevated fear, a necessary property for effective exposure therapy. Further, we show that the effect of streaming on expected fear was similar for participants who can be considered socially anxious. These findings provide evidence for the essential effect of exposure therapy, which serves as a first step towards the validation of streaming as a social anxiety treatment. Our paper provides an initial, important step towards a novel, broadly applicable, and widely accessible digital approach for the treatment of social anxiety.

scholarly journals Kommunalreformens konsekvenser: Kommunalpolitikernes rolle, borgernes lokaldemokratiske opfattelse og den administrative organisering

Politik ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asmus Leth Olsen
Keyword(s):  
Local Politics ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Local Democracy ◽  
Organizational Changes ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Contracting Out ◽  
Municipal Reform ◽  
Citizen Service

This article reviews the empirical literature on the consequences of the municipal amalgamations under the Danish Municipal Reform of 2007. Specifically, three areas of research are reviewed: the role of local coun- cilors, the perception of local democracy among citizens and administrative organizational changes. First, the research points to lower perceived influence among local councilors of amalgamated councils. However, these trends have not affected the degree of voluntary retirement among councilors or the strong consensual norm of Danish local politics. Second, studies point to substantially reduced internal and external political efficacy among citizens in amalgamated municipalities. Furthermore, the negative effects seem to be dependent on the degree of amalgamation. Third, the amalgamations have had varied impact on organizational changes with increased horizontal division of the administration and the number of citizen service centers on one hand, and at the same time no shift in the use of contracting out or the use of internal contracts. Finally, the article points to consequences of the reform of which we still need to gain a better understanding. 

Assessing Social Anxiety: The Inventory of Interpersonal Situations (IIS)

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rien van Dam-Baggen ◽  
Floris Kraaimaat
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Overt Behavior ◽  
Frequency Scale ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
High Internal Consistency ◽  
Interpersonal Situations

Summary: The purpose of this study was to develop a self-report questionnaire for the assessment of social anxiety in adults. The Inventory of Interpersonal Situations (IIS) consists of 35 items formulated as responses to specific social situations. The IIS is based on an interactive concept of social anxiety and provides scores for both a Discomfort and a Frequency scale. The reliability and validity of the IIS were investigated in several adult psychiatric and nonpsychiatric samples. The scales for Discomfort and Frequency showed stability over time. Cronbach's α's revealed a sufficiently high internal consistency on both scales, while the conceptual structure was shown to be rather invariant across socially anxious and nonsocially anxious groups. The IIS scales were able to discriminate between socially anxious and nonsocially anxious samples, and showed significant relationships with independent measures of social anxiety. The IIS scales demonstrated high predictive validity for overt behavior in social situations.

The Role of Social Anxiety in Social Interaction Difficulties

1977 ◽  
Vol 131 (6) ◽  
pp. 610-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roisin Hall ◽  
David Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Skills Training ◽  
Training Programme ◽  
Problem Behaviour ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Common Complaint ◽  
High Social Anxiety

Social anxiety was found to be the most common complaint in a sample of psychiatric patients reporting social interaction difficulties. High social anxiety was shown to be associated with impairments to social behaviour in socially anxious psychiatric patients and non-psychiatric volunteers. A comparison was made of systematic desensitization and a form of social skills training in the treatment of social interaction difficulties associated with high social anxiety. This indicated that while both therapies were effective in the reduction of social anxiety, the training programme was the more effective in reducing problem behaviour, but desensitization appeared to lead to a wider generalization of improvement as indicated by increases in social participation.

Marijuana-related problems and social anxiety: The role of marijuana behaviors in social situations.

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia D. Buckner ◽  
Richard G. Heimberg ◽  
Russell A. Matthews ◽  
Jose Silgado
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Situations

The impact of metacognitive beliefs and anticipatory processing on state anxiety in high socially anxious individuals in a speech task

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 588-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Styliani Gkika ◽  
Adrian Wells
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Emotional Disorders ◽  
State Anxiety ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Negative Beliefs ◽  
Anticipatory Processing ◽  
Metacognitive Beliefs ◽  
Perseverative Thinking ◽  
The Impact

The metacognitive model (Wells & Matthews, 1994) proposes that metacognitions (e.g., positive or negative beliefs about worry and thoughts) are involved in emotional disorders alongside perseverative thinking, such as worry. In social anxiety, worry about forthcoming social situations, termed anticipatory processing (AP), is considered an important maintaining factor (Clark & Wells, 1995), but a role of metacognition is less clear. This study investigated AP and metacognition in 80 high socially anxious individuals asked to engage in either AP or a filler task before delivering a speech. AP and higher uncontrollability/danger metacognitive beliefs were associated with greater state anxiety overall. Individuals with higher positive beliefs about worry experienced less of an increase in anxiety before the speech, but their anxiety persisted until after the speech, compared to individuals with lower beliefs. The results support an effect of metacognitions and are discussed in terms of the social anxiety model and its implications.

Relationships among Social Perception, Social Skill, and Social Anxiety of Psychiatric Patients

1983 ◽  
Vol 53 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1175-1178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan L. Fingeret ◽  
Peter M. Monti ◽  
Maryann Paxson
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Perception ◽  
Social Skill ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Response Alternatives

This study examined relationships among measures of social perception and social performance for 63 psychiatric patients. Simulated social situations with differing response alternatives were presented on videotape to patients who judged the most appropriate alternative of three. Patients also participated in role-plays, and their videotaped responses were later rated for social skill and social anxiety. Patients also responded to a self-report inventory of social behavior. Analysis indicated that social perception was correlated with social skill but not with social anxiety. Self-report measures were not correlated with either social perception or social performance. The possible role of social perception in social performance was discussed.

Eye-Tracking Evidence of a Maintenance Bias in Social Anxiety

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catarina Fernandes ◽  
Susana Silva ◽  
Joana Pires ◽  
Alexandra Reis ◽  
Antónia Jimenez Ros ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Dwell Time ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Personality Structure ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Dynamic Measures ◽  
High Social Anxiety ◽  
Depressive Personality

Background: The mechanisms and triggers of the attentional bias in social anxiety are not yet fully determined, and the modulating role of personality traits is being increasingly acknowledged. Aims: Our main purpose was to test whether social anxiety is associated with mechanisms of hypervigilance, avoidance (static biases), vigilance-avoidance or the maintenance of attention (dynamic biases). Our secondary goal was to explore the role of personality structure in shaping the attention bias. Method: Participants with high vs low social anxiety and different personality structures viewed pairs of faces (free-viewing eye-tracking task) representing different emotions (anger, happiness and neutrality). Their eye movements were registered and analysed for both whole-trial (static) and time-dependent (dynamic) measures. Results: Comparisons between participants with high and low social anxiety levels did not yield evidence of differences in eye-tracking measures for the whole trial (latency of first fixation, first fixation direction, total dwell time), but the two groups differed in the time course of overt attention during the trial (dwell time across three successive time segments): participants with high social anxiety were slower in disengaging their attention from happy faces. Similar results were obtained using a full-sample, regression-based analysis. Conclusion: Our results speak in favour of a maintenance bias in social anxiety. Preliminary results indicated that personality structure may not affect the maintenance (dynamic) bias of socially anxious individuals, although depressive personality structures may favour manifestations of a (static) hypervigilance bias.

scholarly journals The efficacy of cognitive restructuring and mindfulness strategies in reducing post-event processing among socially anxious individuals

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany A. Gee
Keyword(s):  
State Anxiety ◽  
Cognitive Restructuring ◽  
Single Session ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Negative Thoughts ◽  
Postevent Processing ◽  
Maladaptive Beliefs ◽  
Reduced State

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is defined as a marked and persistent fear of social situations in which an individual is exposed to potential scrutiny from others (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Prominent models of SAD (Clark & Wells, 1995 ; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997) postulate that postevent processing (PEP), which involves reviewing a past social event in detail (typically in a negative way), serves as a key maintenance factor of SAD. The current study examined the efficacy of a single session cognitive restructuring or mindfulness strategy on decreasing PEP and its associated effects, and also investigated the cognitive processes involved. Seventy-four socially anxious participants completed a speech task to elicit PEP, were taught a cognitive restructuring, mindfulness, or control strategy to manage their negative thoughts related to the speech, and completed several questionnaires. Participants in the cognitive restructuring condition reported decreased PEP (degree and associated distress) and improved affect (but not reduced state anxiety), as compared to the control condition. Participants in the mindfulness condition also reported decrease PEP (degree but no associate distress) and improved affect (including reduced state anxiety), as compared to the control condition. No significant differences were found between the cognitive restructuring and mindfulness conditions. Participants in the cognitive restructuring condition also reported decreased beliefs about the perceived costs of negative social situations. Regardless of study condition, decreases in cost biases and maladaptive beliefs sign significantly predicted reductions in PEP. Thus, cognitive restructuring and mindfulness appear to be promising strategies to decrease PEP and its associated negative effects.

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