Shared and Unique Cognitive Factors in Social Anxiety

Abstract

Recent transdiagnostic models of psychological disorder posit that the separate diagnostic categories are underpinned by a remarkably similar set of processes. However, it has been suggested that these processes themselves may have substantial commonalities, and, in fact, be derivatives of one or more higher order factors (i.e. a ‘transprocess’ model). This study examined this proposition with relation to cognitive processes in social anxiety, with 559 undergraduates who completed measures of Social Phobia; capacity for generating visual imagery; rumination; worry, tendency to experience shame; and metacognitive response to intrusions. The best conceptualization of these cognitive processes as explanations of social anxiety was to view them as indicators of a higher order variable that was not measured. In other words, social anxiety was best predicted from a single cognitive process that was not measured directly, but is made up of the interpretation of intrusions, trait rumination, obsessive beliefs, shame and worry. Visual imagery did not appear to add significantly to the fit of the model to the data. There appears to be substantial overlap in the cognitive processes that underpin symptoms of social anxiety, providing support for the transprocess model.