Ariella Lenton-Brym

• Master of Arts
• PhD Student at Toronto Metropolitan University

Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) demonstrate impaired functioning in intimate relationships, yet little is known about how socially anxious individuals respond to perceived intimate partner rejection. In the present study, individuals with SAD (n = 30) and healthy controls (HCs; n = 33) who were involved in current intimate relationsh...

This study explores associations between symptoms of social anxiety (SA) and depression with participants' extent of dating app use, self-reported motivations for dating app use, and likelihood of initiating interaction with dating app matches. Three hundred seventy-four participants completed an online battery of surveys that examined psychopathol...

Background: Extant self-report measures of social anxiety primarily assess the breadth of social situations in which respondents feel anxious, rather than assessing severity in terms of the distress and impairment that individuals experience due to their social anxiety symptoms. This paper describes the development and validation of the Ryerson Soc...

Background/Objectives: Research has demonstrated an association between social anxiety and impaired Theory of Mind (ToM). We assess whether ToM deficits occur even at a subclinical level of social anxiety and whether group differences in ToM performance are consistent with interpretation bias. We also explore potential reasons as to why socially an...

Mobile dating applications (“dating apps”) have become popular, particularly among sexual minority groups (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, and other sexual orientations), potentially due to limited opportunities to meet similar others offline. Experiences of discrimination in everyday life (i.e., not constrained to dating apps, such as bei...

Social rejection is a common and unavoidable experience for users of dating apps. Research suggests that socially anxious individuals may be particularly likely to use dating apps to establish intimate relationships, given their preference for online (vs. face-to-face) communication. However, social anxiety (SA) symptoms are associated with heighte...

Background Post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) poses a global public health challenge. Evidence‐based psychotherapies (EBPs) for PTSD reduce symptoms and improve functioning (Forbes et al., Guilford Press, 2020, 3). However, a number of barriers to access and engagement with these interventions prevail. As a result, the use of EBPs in community s...

Cognitive-behavioral conjoint therapy (CBCT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a manualized therapy for couples designed to simultaneously decrease PTSD symptoms and improve relationship functioning. CBCT has only been tested in couples, not families of three or more members. Family therapy for PTSD may have merit given that there is a bi...

Plusieurs mesures ont été mises en œuvre pour réduire la propagation de la COVID-19, le port du masque étant l’une des mesures les plus utilisées. Pourtant, les obstacles au port du masque ne sont pas clairs. Cette étude a examiné si différents types de groupes de symptômes d’anxiété (c’est-à-dire les symptômes de claustrophobie, de sensibilité à l...

La pandémie de coronavirus (COVID-19) a contribué à une augmentation mondiale des problèmes de santé mentale, dont l’« anxiété liée à la COVID-19 », c'est-à-dire la présence d'une anxiété dysfonctionnelle associée au nouveau coronavirus (par exemple, la peur de contracter ou de propager le virus). La présente étude a examiné les modérateurs potenti...

Background : Post-event processing (PEP) is an important maintenance factor of social anxiety disorder (SAD). This study examined psychometric properties of the Positive Beliefs about Post-Event Processing Questionnaire (PB-PEPQ; Fisak & Hammond, 2013), which measures metacognitive beliefs about PEP. Method : Participants receiving treatment for SA...

Background Although numerous self-report measures of social anxiety exist, most instruments assess symptom severity by examining the range of social situations that provoke anxiety, rather than the distress and impairment associated with social anxiety. The Ryerson Social Anxiety Scales (RSAS; Lenton-Brym, A. P., Rogojanski, J., Hood, H. K., Vorste...

Clients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) that demonstrate observer-coded treatment ambivalence benefit from the addition of motivational interviewing (MI) to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT; Button, Westra, Constantino, & Antony, 2016). While observer-coded assessment of ambivalence and readiness for change is resource-intensive, the prese...

Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) refers to a family of tasks designed to induce changes in cognitive processing and associated emotional reactivity. Researchers have recently struggled to replicate the promising initial findings of CBM treatments. In particular, challenges with selecting an appropriate placebo control task may contribute to this i...