Trait Social Anxiety Research Articles

The efficacy of imagery rescripting compared to cognitive restructuring for social anxiety disorder

Imagery rescripting (IR) aims to alter negative meanings associated with distressing autobiographical memories. The current study aimed to extend demonstrated benefits of IR for social anxiety disorder (SAD), including direct comparison of IR with cognitive restructuring (CR) to assess the relative impact of these interventions on symptoms and processes. SAD individuals (N=60) were randomly allocated to IR, CR or Control conditions, and completed two speech tasks (before and after) their assigned intervention. Participants completed measures of symptomatology and state affective/cognitive variables in relation to the intervention and speech tasks. Results support the benefits of IR for SAD, with both IR and CR yielding large and equivalent reductions in trait social anxiety. However, IR and CR may function via differing pathways. Outcomes suggest that IR may be most effective in the treatment of SAD when delivered across multiple sessions or preceded by CR to target verbal and imaginal self-representations.

Psychological recovery: Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), anxiety, and sleep in dancers

The current study was designed to test the efficacy of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) in improving the sleep onset latency (SOL) of full time dancers. A pre and post intervention study design examined sleep duration and efficiency, and change in SOL as a function of trait anxiety using PMR for the intervention. Twelve female dancers aged 18–23 years were recruited from the Queensland University of Technology dance programme. Trait anxiety was differentiated into social evaluation, physical danger, and ambiguous dimensions using the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scale-Trait (EMAS-T) scales. Sleep parameters were monitored using wristwatch actigraphy over a 14 day period with a PMR intervention in Week 2. Sleep duration and efficiency were compared to published data, and improvements in SOL were examined for those with poorer baseline SOL and higher trait anxiety. Sleep duration and efficiency in this sample did not significantly differ to that of previously published data from athlete and dance samples. Participants with high trait social evaluation anxiety showed a statistically significant decrease in SOL from Week 1 to Week 2 (Z=−2.02, p=.04), with a large effect size (r=.90) following PMR training. Sleep needs of full time dancers differ to those of the general population. PMR is indicated as an effective strategy for improving SOL in higher trait social evaluation anxiety elite performers. Replication with a large randomised controlled trial and an athlete sample is needed.

Relations among Social Anxiety, Eye Contact Avoidance, State Anxiety, and Perception of Interaction Performance during a Live Conversation

There is building evidence that highly socially anxious (HSA) individuals frequently avoid making eye contact, which may contribute to less meaningful social interactions and maintenance of social anxiety symptoms. However, research to date is lacking in ecological validity due to the usage of either static or pre-recorded facial stimuli or subjective coding of eye contact. The current study examined the relationships among trait social anxiety, eye contact avoidance, state anxiety, and participants’ self-perceptions of interaction performance during a live, four-minute conversation with a confederate via webcam, and while being covertly eye-tracked. Participants included undergraduate women who conversed with same-sex confederates. Results indicated that trait social anxiety was inversely related to eye contact duration and frequency averaged across the four minutes, and positively related to state social anxiety and negative self-ratings. In addition, greater anticipatory state anxiety was associated with reduced eye contact throughout the first minute of the conversation. Eye contact was not related to post-task state anxiety or self-perception of poor performance; although, trends emerged in which these relations may be positive for HSA individuals. The current findings provide enhanced support for the notion that eye contact avoidance is an important feature of social anxiety.

Perfectionism: A contributor to social anxiety and its cognitive processes

The present study aimed to examine how perfectionism is contributing to social anxiety and its cognitive processes of post‐event rumination and self‐perception of performance following a speech task. Forty‐eight undergraduate students completed measures of perfectionism and trait social anxiety prior to performing a 3‐min impromptu speech task. Immediately following the speech task, participants rated their state anxiety and self‐perception of performance, and 24-hr later, their level of post‐event rumination was measured. Structural equation modelling revealed that perfectionism, in the form of socially prescribed perfectionism and doubts about actions, directly influences trait social anxiety, and indirectly influences post‐event rumination and self‐perception of performance through its relationship with trait social anxiety and state anxiety. This is the first study to investigate how perfectionism is contributing to social anxiety and its cognitive processes. The findings of this study provide evidence in support of the potential predictive role of perfectionism in social anxiety.

Blending in at the Cost of Losing Oneself: Dishonest Self-Disclosure Erodes Self-Concept Clarity in Social Anxiety

Self-concept clarity helps to promote self-esteem and guide adaptive social behavior. Recent studies have found that people with higher levels of trait social anxiety exhibit significantly diminished levels of self-concept clarity, but the mechanisms that might link higher social anxiety with lower self-concept clarity are untested and unknown. We propose that the relation between social anxiety and self-concept clarity is mediated by dishonest self-disclosure – a self-protective strategy in which one asserts an inauthentic or dishonest opinion to others based on what one believes others wish to hear rather than one's own genuine viewpoint. To test this prediction, we manipulated the honesty of participants' self-disclosures during a social task in the laboratory and measured subsequent changes in self-concept clarity. As hypothesized, dishonest relative to honest self-disclosure led to significantly reduced levels of self-concept clarity, but only amongst participants with higher levels of trait social anxiety. These findings help to elucidate the processes underlying the link between social anxiety and self-concept clarity and provide insight into the costs of adopting an inauthentic façade during interpersonal encounters when social conformity motives become salient.

Alcohol Dependence and Genetic Variability in the Serotonin Pathway among Currently and Formerly Alcohol-Dependent Males

Background: Genes involved in the serotonin pathway may determine the susceptibility to alcohol dependence and its severity. The present study explored whether specific polymorphisms in the serotonin pathway could be associated with alcohol dependence or alcohol-related psychopathological symptoms. Methods: The cohort comprised 101 currently and 100 formerly alcohol-dependent males, as well as 97 male healthy blood donors. The following questionnaires were employed: the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, the Zung Depression and Anxiety Scale, the Brief Social Phobia Scale, the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale and Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale, and the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory. Subjects were genotyped for bi- and triallelic SLC6A4 5-HTTLPR,HTR1A rs6295, and HTR1B rs13212041. Results: Statistical differences in bi- and triallelic SLC6A4 5-HTTLPR genotype distribution were observed between the 3 groups investigated (p = 0.008 and p = 0.023, respectively); however, no gene-dose effect was observed. The severity of the alcohol problems was higher in currently alcohol-dependent subjects with the 5-HTTLPR LL (p = 0.039) and L′L′ genotypes (p = 0.027). Formerly dependent subjects with the 5-HTTLPR S′S′ genotype showed more social anxiety, depressive, and anxiety traits (p = 0.009, p = 0.006, and p = 0.036, respectively). Healthy controls with the 5-HTTLPR SS genotype showed more traits of social anxiety (p = 0.020). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that bi- and triallelic SLC6A4 5-HTTLPR has some effects on the severity of alcohol dependence. Triallelic 5-HTTLPR was associated with social anxiety, anxiety, and depressive traits in alcohol-dependent subjects.

Biases in probabilistic category learning in relation to social anxiety.

Instrumental learning paradigms are rarely employed to investigate the mechanisms underlying acquired fear responses in social anxiety. Here, we adapted a probabilistic category learning paradigm to assess information processing biases as a function of the degree of social anxiety traits in a sample of healthy individuals without a diagnosis of social phobia. Participants were presented with three pairs of neutral faces with differing probabilistic accuracy contingencies (A/B: 80/20, C/D: 70/30, E/F: 60/40). Upon making their choice, negative and positive feedback was conveyed using angry and happy faces, respectively. The highly socially anxious group showed a strong tendency to be more accurate at learning the probability contingency associated with the most ambiguous stimulus pair (E/F: 60/40). Moreover, when pairing the most positively reinforced stimulus or the most negatively reinforced stimulus with all the other stimuli in a test phase, the highly socially anxious group avoided the most negatively reinforced stimulus significantly more than the control group. The results are discussed with reference to avoidance learning and hypersensitivity to negative socially evaluative information associated with social anxiety.

Attention allocation in social anxiety during a speech

Cognitive models assume that social anxiety is associated with and maintained by biased information processing, leading to change in attention allocation, which can be measured by examining eye movement. However, little is known about the distribution of attention among positive, neutral and negative stimuli during a social task and the relative importance of positive versus negative biases in social anxiety. In this study, eye movement, subjective state anxiety and psychophysiology of individuals with high trait social anxiety (HSA) and low trait social anxiety (LSA) were measured during a speech task with a pre-recorded audience. The HSA group showed longer total fixation on negative stimuli and shorter total fixation on positive stimuli compared to the LSA group. We observed that the LSA group shifted attention away from negative stimuli, whereas the HSA group showed no differential attention allocation. The total duration of fixation on negative stimuli predicted subjective anxiety ratings. These results point to a negative bias as well as a lack of a positive bias in HSA individuals during social threat.

Neural mechanisms of proactive and reactive cognitive control in social anxiety

Social anxiety—the fear of social embarrassment and negative evaluation by others—ranks among people's worst fears, and it is often thought to impair task performance. We investigated the neurocognitive processes through which trait social anxiety relates to task performance, proposing a model of the joint contributions of reactive control, theoretically associated with conflict monitoring and activity of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and proactive control, theoretically associated with top-down regulation and activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Participants varying in their degree of trait social anxiety completed the Eriksen flanker task while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Task-related left dlPFC activity was indexed by relative left prefrontal EEG (inverse alpha), and conflict-related dACC activity was indexed by the N2r component of the event-related potential. Stronger activity in both regions predicted better response control, and greater social anxiety was associated with worse response control. Furthermore, for all participants, greater left prefrontal EEG activity predicted better behavioral control, but for high social anxiety participants only, greater N2r responses also predicted behavioral control. This pattern suggests that low social anxiety individuals engaged a proactive control process, driven by dlPFC activity, whereas high social anxiety individuals relied additionally on a reactive control process, driven by conflict-related dACC activity. These findings support a model of control that involves different patterns of interplay between proactive and reactive strategies and may help to explain self-regulatory impairments in social anxiety.

Does Alcohol Reduce Social Anxiety in Daily Life? A 22-Day Experience Sampling Study

To explain the co-occurrence of social anxiety and alcohol use problems, researchers have used experimental methods to test whether alcohol reduces state social anxiety (SSA) in the lab. The present study used experience sampling to extend research into real world settings. Students (N = 132; 100 women; 32 men; aged 17 to 32 years) reported their SSA and alcohol intake 6 times from 4:00 pm to 4:00 am every day for 22 days. Multilevel modeling suggested for each alcoholic drink consumed, SSA decreased by 4.0% two hours later. Those with greater levels of trait social anxiety (TSA) experienced higher SSA than those with lower levels of TSA. Findings support predictions made by tension reduction theory—that alcohol reduces SSA in daily life. These results extend many lab-based findings to the real world and provide further evidence that alcohol may provide negative reinforcement for those who are experiencing social anxiety.

Interaction of CD38 Variant and Chronic Interpersonal Stress Prospectively Predicts Social Anxiety and Depression Symptoms Over Six Years.

Variation in the CD38 gene, which regulates secretion of the neuropeptide oxytocin, has been associated with several social phenotypes. Specifically, rs3796863 A allele carriers have demonstrated increased social sensitivity. In 400 older adolescents, we used trait-state-occasion modeling to investigate how rs3796863 genotype, baseline ratings of chronic interpersonal stress, and their gene-environment (GxE) interaction predicted trait social anxiety and depression symptoms over six years. We found significant GxE effects for CD38 A-carrier genotypes and chronic interpersonal stress at baseline predicting greater social anxiety and depression symptoms. A significant GxE effect of smaller magnitude was also found for C/C genotype and chronic interpersonal stress predicting greater depression; however, this effect was small compared to the main effect of chronic interpersonal stress. Thus, in the context of chronic interpersonal stress, heightened social sensitivity associated with the rs3796863 A allele may prospectively predict risk for social anxiety and (to a lesser extent) depression.

A Systematic Review of the Psychometric Properties of Trait Social Anxiety Self-Report Measures

Since the inclusion of social anxiety disorder in DSM-III, a number of self-report measures have been developed in order to detect and measure aspects of trait social anxiety. The present systematic review examined evidence supporting the psychometric properties of trait social anxiety self-report measures. Relevant studies were identified via a comprehensive detailed systematic search of academic databases. The psychometric properties reported in the included studies were subjected to an appraisal of their adequacy using an established quality assessment tool. Of the 3172 studies identified, 72 studies met the inclusion criteria. Included studies indicated that a number of measures had evidence of some adequate psychometric properties, though none demonstrated criteria for all relevant psychometric properties according to the appraisal of adequacy tool utilised in this study. Overall the findings demonstrate that further research is needed to establish the psychometric properties of trait social anxiety self-report measures before their results can be interpreted as robust indices of this important construct.

Proneness to social anxiety modulates neural complexity in the absence of exposure: A resting state fMRI study using Hurst exponent

To test the hypothesis that brain activity is modulated by trait social anxiety, we measured the Hurst Exponent (HE), an index of complexity in time series, in healthy individuals at rest in the absence of any social trigger. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) time series were recorded in 36 subjects at rest. All volunteers were healthy without any psychiatric, medical or neurological disorder. Subjects completed the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) and the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation (BFNE) to assess social anxiety and thoughts in social contexts. We also obtained the fractional Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuations (fALFF) of the BOLD signal as an independent control measure for HE data. BFNE scores correlated positively with HE in the posterior cingulate/precuneus, while LSAS scores correlated positively with HE in the precuneus, in the inferior parietal sulci and in the parahippocamus. Results from fALFF were highly consistent with those obtained using LSAS and BFNE to predict HE. Overall our data indicate that spontaneous brain activity is influenced by the degree of social anxiety, on a continuum and in the absence of social stimuli. These findings suggest that social anxiety is a trait characteristic that shapes brain activity and predisposes to different reactions in social contexts.

Negative Social Evaluative Fears Produce Social Anxiety, Food Intake, and Body Dissatisfaction: Evidence of Similar Mechanisms through Different Pathways.

Social anxiety and eating disorders are highly comorbid, suggesting there are shared vulnerabilities that underlie the development of these disorders. Two proposed vulnerabilities are fear of negative evaluation and social appearance anxiety (i.e., fear of negative evaluation regarding one's appearance). In the current experimental study (N=160 women) we measured these fears: (a) through a manipulation comparing fear conditions, (b) with trait fears, and (c) state fears. Results indicated that participants in the fear of negative evaluation condition increased food consumption, whereas participants in the social appearance anxiety condition and high in trait social appearance anxiety experienced the highest amounts of body dissatisfaction. Participants in the fear of evaluation and social appearance anxiety conditions experienced elevated social anxiety. These results support the idea that negative evaluation fears are shared vulnerabilities for eating and social anxiety disorders, but that the way these variables exert their effects may lead to disorder specific behaviors.

Social Exclusion and Covert Attention to Social Signs: Moderating Effect of Trait Social Anxiety

Social Exclusion and Covert Attention to Social Signs: Moderating Effect of Trait Social Anxiety

Étude du profil des personnes victimes d’intimidation réelle et d’intimidation sur Internet

ObjectivesOver the last decade, Internet use has exponentially grown among young people and 95% of adolescents are able to access the Internet. It is important to note that this expansion might lead to cyberbullying, an underestimated phenomenon that has been reported to be experienced by up to 20% of adolescents. Cyberbullying has been associated with poor psychological functioning such as increased depressive and anxiety symptoms. Therefore, the aim of the present study was firstly to explore relationships between different kinds of bullying (face to face, Internet, and Facebook) and depression, social and separation anxiety, submissive traits, and social support, among adolescents. We expected to find an association between the different forms of bullying and these variables. Secondly, the aim was to identify a typology of adolescents based on the type of bullying. We expected to obtain clusters that would differ in levels of psychological functioning including depressive and social phobia symptoms, perceived social support, separation anxiety and submissive traits. MethodsThe study data were obtained from high schools students in Toulouse, France. Participants were 151 adolescents (Mean age=15.28±0.6) who completed a self-report questionnaire assessing depression, social and separation anxiety, submissive traits, social support, bullying, and cyberbullying on the Internet and on Facebook. ResultsA correlation analysis revealed that cyberbullying was positively associated with bullying (r=.80, P<.05) and negatively associated with social support (r=–0.27, P<.05). Cluster analysis yielded 3 clearly distinct clusters with 92.7% of participants successfully classified (Wilks’ λ=0.10, P<.0001): the low bullied cluster (LBC) (n=99.60% of the sample), the moderately bullied cluster (MBC) (n=38.31% of the sample) and the highly bullied cluster (HBC) (n=14.9% of the sample). The HBC cluster had significantly higher scores on depression, social anxiety and submissive traits and lower scores of social support than the LBC and the MBC clusters. ConclusionFirstly, our results suggest that victims of cyberbullying might suffer from increased psychological distress including higher depressive symptoms, social/separation anxiety symptoms, submissive traits and lower social support. Secondly, our results suggest the usefulness of taking traditional bullying into account when exploring cyberbullying. Indeed, existing face-to-face power relationships might be extended to Internet. A continuum between bullying in school and cyberbullying could lead to increased psychological distress and an increased suicide risk. This continuum might be associated with Internet use on mobile devices which could lead to a lack of separation between private and public domains. Further studies exploring cyberbullying via mobile devices as well as victim and assaulter profiles on the Internet are warranted.

A longitudinal study of facets of extraversion in depression and social anxiety

The present study examines the relationship of lower level facets of extraversion with depression and social anxiety. A sample of 2942 adults aged 18–65, consisting of healthy controls, persons with a prior history of emotional disorders, and persons with a current emotional disorder were assessed at baseline (T0) and 2 (T2) and 4years (T4) later. At each wave anxiety and depressive disorder according to DSM-IV criteria, symptom severity and facets of extraversion (positive affectivity, sociability and activity) were assessed. Using structural equation modeling we found that trait depression had a large association with lack of positive affectivity, while trait social anxiety showed moderately strong associations with both low sociability and lack of positive affectivity. Facet-level analyses increase the specification of associations of personality constructs with particular forms of psychopathology. Given the role of positive emotions in resilience against depression and possibly social anxiety, interventions directly aimed at increasing positive emotions seem warranted.

Inhibitory control as a moderator of threat-related interference biases in social anxiety

Prior findings are mixed regarding the presence and direction of threat-related interference biases in social anxiety. The current study examined general inhibitory control (IC), measured by the classic colour-word Stroop, as a moderator of the relationship between both threat interference biases [indexed by the emotional Stroop (e-Stroop)] and several social anxiety indicators. High socially anxious undergraduate students (N = 159) completed the emotional and colour-word Stroop tasks, followed by an anxiety-inducing speech task. Participants completed measures of trait social anxiety, state anxiety before and during the speech, negative task-interfering cognitions during the speech and overall self-evaluation of speech performance. Speech duration was used to measure behavioural avoidance. In line with hypotheses, IC moderated the relationship between e-Stroop bias and every anxiety indicator (with the exception of behavioural avoidance), such that greater social-threat interference was associated with higher anxiety among those with weak IC, whereas lesser social-threat interference was associated with higher anxiety among those with strong IC. Implications for the theory and treatment of threat interference biases in socially anxious individuals are discussed.

Social Anxiety, Anticipatory Processing and Negative Expectancies for an Interpersonal Task in Middle Childhood

Cognitive models assume that socially anxious individuals engage in negatively-biased anticipatory processing that enhances anxiety and exacerbates maladaptive cognitions. To date little is known about this anticipatory processing and its relationship with mood and predicted performance in socially anxious children. In the present study, a school sample of 181 children (aged 10-11 years) was instructed to either engage in anticipatory processing or perform a distraction task while preparing to give a speech in front of the class. Results showed that trait social anxiety was associated with more negative estimates of personal appearance and catastrophic thoughts relating to speech performance. Following the manipulation, children in the distraction condition showed significant reductions in state anxiety, but children in the anticipation condition did not. Furthermore, children in the anticipation condition gave more negative predictions of personal appearance during the speech task than children in the distraction condition. Crucially, trait social anxiety was more strongly associated with catastrophic thinking and negative expectations of their personal appearance when children were instructed to engage in anticipatory processing rather than distraction. The findings provide further support for the suggestion that anticipatory processing plays a role in maintaining childhood social anxiety.

Social Anxiety Disorder and Global/Local Performance on a Visuospatial Processing Task

Few research studies have examined differences in processing “big-picture,” global stimuli versus detailed, local stimuli in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Similarly, little is known about the impact of a social stressor on cognitive functioning in SAD. This study explores differences in memory for global and local visuospatial information between participants with SAD (n = 37) and non-anxious control participants (n = 40) using the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test. Half of the participants were exposed to a social stressor (anticipating giving a speech) while they completed the task. Two scoring subscales were used to distinguish between reproduction of global elements and local features on Copy, Immediate Recall, and Delayed Recall trials. Results indicated that participants with SAD who were not exposed to the social stressor performed more poorly at reproducing local elements on the Copy trial, compared to participants in the SAD-stressor present group and both control groups. Additionally, control participants, but not those with SAD, demonstrated improvement in memory for global elements from Immediate to Delayed Recall trials. These results suggest that trait social anxiety impairs consolidation of global visuospatial information over time, and interacts with the presence of a state stressor to affect reproduction of details.