What If I Appear Boring, Anxious, or Unattractive? Validation and Treatment Sensitivity of the Negative Self Portrayal Scale in Clinical Samples

Abstract

A recently developed self-report questionnaire, the Negative Self Portrayal Scale (NSPS; Moscovitch and Huyder in Behav Ther 42:183–196. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2010.04.007 , 2011) assesses concerns about appearing socially incompetent, physically unattractive, and/or visibly anxious to evaluative others. Initial validation studies of the NSPS yielded promising results but were conducted exclusively on samples of undergraduate students. Here, we aimed to replicate and extend those initial studies by examining the factor structure, construct validity, and treatment sensitivity of the NSPS in samples of community-based participants with a principal diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (SAD), a principal anxiety disorder diagnosis other than SAD, or no history of psychological problems. Results provided support for the construct validity of the NSPS within clinical samples and suggested that the types of concerns assessed by the NSPS and its subscales may be useful for predicting individual differences in emotional and behavioral symptoms of social anxiety (SA) and for conceptualizing change processes during cognitive behavioral therapy for SAD. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that while the hypothesized three-factor model fit significantly better than an alternative one-factor model, the fit indices associated with the three-factor model were below satisfactory cutoffs, thus tempering conclusions that the best fitting structure was found and highlighting the need for additional research. Implications of these findings are discussed vis-a-vis Moscovitch’s (Cogn Behav Pract 16:123–134. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpra.2008.04.002 , 2009) theoretical model of SA and the potential utility of the NSPS for both clinical research and practice.