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Social anxiety spectrum and diminished positive experiences: Theoretical synthesis and meta-analysis
Abstract
Until recently, there has been limited recognition that diminished positive psychological experiences are important to understanding the nature of social anxiety. Meta-analytic techniques were used to evaluate the strength, consistency, and construct specificity of relations between the social anxiety spectrum with positive affect and curiosity. The social anxiety spectrum had significant inverse relations with positive affect (r=-.36; 95% CI: -.31 to -.40) and curiosity (r=-.24; 95% CI: -.20 to -.28). Relations between social anxiety and positive affect were stronger in studies sampling from clinical populations. Specificity findings (e.g., statistically controlling for depressive symptoms and disorders) further confirmed negative associations with positive affect (r=-.21; 95% CI: -.16 to -.26) and curiosity (r=-.21; 95% CI: -.08 to -.32). The literature on social rank, self-presentation concerns, self-regulatory resources, and experiential avoidance is reviewed and integrated to elaborate a framework of how, why, and when social anxiety may be inversely related to positive experiences. The specificity of theory and data to social interaction anxiety is supported by an examination of existing work on social performance/observation fears and other anxiety conditions. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of diminished positive psychological experiences in understanding excessive social anxiety.
... Children's attentional control was inversely related to appropriate social responding. This finding may hold particular relevance for SA in which anxiety-related impairments in self-regulatory mechanisms such as attentional control may adversely affect interpersonal behavior, thereby confirming the individual's fears of poor social performance (Kashdan 2007. ...
... Similarly, in a study of the tripartite model of anxiety and depression in individuals with SAD, SA was more closely related to a low positive affect factor than a physiological hyperarousal factor (Hughes et al. 2006). A recent meta-analysis also supported the findings of reduced positive affect across the SA spectrum after statistically accounting for the variance contributed by depressive symptoms (Kashdan 2007). ...
... Given accumulating evidence supporting an inverse relationship between SA and positive affect, researchers have turned to examining potential mechanisms. Kashdan (2007) proposes a self-regulation depletion hypothesis. He proposes that there exists a paradox in SA in which excessive attempts to make a positive impression, appear and feel less anxious, and avoid rejection deplete the self-control resources necessary to effectively prevent www.annualreviews.org ...
... Positive and negative affect are conceptualized as orthogonal constructs on separate axes (Hughes et al., 2009;Kashdan, 2007;Lonigan et al., 1999). Some research finds that anxiety disorders are associated with higher levels of self-reported negative affect but no differences in self-reported positive affect, in children ages 7-14 (Hughes & Kendall, 2009). ...
... other anxiety disorders), is associated with lower levels of positive affect in addition to higher levels of negative affect in adulthood (Kashdan, 2007). ...
Social acceptance and rejection are salient experiences, especially during adolescence. Acceptance and rejection relate to changes in positive and negative affect, although directionality of the relation remains unclear. The ability to regulate affect following social experiences may be part of the etiology of social anxiety disorder. With the importance of social cues in adolescence, as well as adolescence as a key window for the onset of social anxiety, we used daily diary data collected in a sample ranging from 9-18 years to examine daily changes in acceptance, rejection, positive affect, and negative affect. Taking a person-centered approach, we constructed networks directionally linking social experiences and affect, which served as behaviors of interest (“nodes”) in the network, for each individual. From these networks, we extracted recovery times from different nodes, i.e., the number of days it took for a node to return to baseline when 1) the node itself was perturbed and 2) when a connected node was perturbed. We examined associations between network metrics and social anxiety, age, gender, and their interaction. We found that the recovery time of positive affect when social acceptance was perturbed was inversely related with social anxiety and age, suggesting benefits of acceptance may be shorter-lasting for those with more (vs. less) social anxiety symptoms and for older (vs. younger) adolescents. We conclude that positive affect may be a critical yet understudied piece in understanding why adolescence is a developmental period of increased risk for psychopathology and for understanding the etiology of social anxiety disorder.
... To offer additional insight into the novel assessment of ruminative inertia in the context of anxiety, both general anxiety and social anxiety were separately examined. This was done because, unlike general anxiety, social anxiety is characterized by both elevated negative affect and diminished positive affect (Cohen et al., 2017;Kashdan, 2007). Given the close link between affect and rumination, it may be that different patterns of affective experiences between general and social anxiety may give rise to different patterns of rumination associated with the two forms of anxiety as well. ...
... Speculatively, this may be due to differential relations between ruminative variability and positive versus negative affect. While both depression and social anxiety are characterized by increased negative affect and reduced positive affect, general anxiety is primarily accompanied by reduced negative affect only (Cohen et al., 2017;Kashdan, 2007). It could be that ruminative variability is especially related to maladaptive functioning of the positive valence system. ...
Background. Rumination is a well-established contributor to the severity of depression and anxiety. It is unknown, however, whether individual differences in the temporal dynamics of rumination over time predict longitudinal increases in depression or anxiety.
Methods. The current study examined whether the dynamic indices of ruminative inertia and variability assessed over 14 days via ecological momentary assessment predicted change in symptoms of depression, general anxiety, and social anxiety at a 90-day follow-up (n = 115).
Results. Controlling for ruminative variability, baseline levels of the dependent variable, sex, and mean levels of momentary rumination, ruminative inertia did not predict change in symptoms of depression, general anxiety, or social anxiety at the 90-day follow-up. In contrast, greater ruminative variability predicted increases in symptoms of both depression and social anxiety but not general anxiety at follow-up. Individuals endorsing higher baseline levels of depressive symptoms demonstrated greater amounts of inertia and variability in their momentary rumination. Greater ruminative variability but not inertia was also associated with higher baseline levels of general anxiety and social anxiety.
Conclusions. These results suggest that ruminative variability may be a risk factor for increases in symptoms of depression and social anxiety over time and a potentially useful target for clinical intervention.
... There is limited research on PVS functioning within the spectrum of anxiety disorders, with most studies focusing on patients with specific anxiety disorders such as SAD and GAD, e.g., (14)(15)(16). These studies suggest that individuals with SAD and GAD tend to have reduced positive experiences and use experiential avoidance as a coping mechanism. ...
... In regards to the single RDoC domains starting with PVS, we found that low PVS manifestations, representing low hedonic affect and low habituation, were associated with high symptom burden, which is consistent with previous findings of diminished PVS processing in MDD, e.g., (19,21), and SAD and GAD, e.g., (14,45,53). The finding that disease severity scores were affected by low PVS manifestations most strongly in patients with MDD is also consistent with previous research that suggests PVS-related processing as a marker for MDD, e.g., (40,42,54). ...
Background
Anxiety and depressive disorders share common features of mood dysfunctions. This has stimulated interest in transdiagnostic dimensional research as proposed by the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approach by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) aiming to improve the understanding of underlying disease mechanisms. The purpose of this study was to investigate the processing of RDoC domains in relation to disease severity in order to identify latent disorder-specific as well as transdiagnostic indicators of disease severity in patients with anxiety and depressive disorders.
Methods
Within the German research network for mental disorders, 895 participants (n = 476 female, n = 602 anxiety disorder, n = 257 depressive disorder) were recruited for the Phenotypic, Diagnostic and Clinical Domain Assessment Network Germany (PD-CAN) and included in this cross-sectional study. We performed incremental regression models to investigate the association of four RDoC domains on disease severity in patients with affective disorders: Positive (PVS) and Negative Valance System (NVS), Cognitive Systems (CS) and Social Processes (SP).
Results
The results confirmed a transdiagnostic relationship for all four domains, as we found significant main effects on disease severity within domain-specific models (PVS: β = −0.35; NVS: β = 0.39; CS: β = −0.12; SP: β = −0.32). We also found three significant interaction effects with main diagnosis showing a disease-specific association.
Limitations
The cross-sectional study design prevents causal conclusions. Further limitations include possible outliers and heteroskedasticity in all regression models which we appropriately controlled for.
Conclusion
Our key results show that symptom burden in anxiety and depressive disorders is associated with latent RDoC indicators in transdiagnostic and disease-specific ways.
... Deficits in PA have been indicated as potential etiologic and maintenance factors that are unique to SAD as compared to other anxiety disorders and cannot be explained by comorbidity with depression (Alden et al., 2008;Brown et al., 1998;Kashdan, 2007;Watson et al., 1988). Moreover, adults with SAD anticipate a lower likelihood of positive events (Gilboa-Schechtman et al., 2000), and demonstrate a reduced ability to sustain positive emotions and experiences (Eisner et al., 2009). ...
... In light of previous studies that have established low PA as a feature of SAD (Alden et al., 2008;Brown et al., 1990;Kashdan, 2007;Watson et al., 1988), as well as work suggesting an interface between anhedonia (which comprises a diminished PA component) and altered connectivity in reward regions (e.g., Pornpattananangkul et al., 2019;Wang et al., 2016) such that the assessment of PA before treatment may be informative for clinicians when considering appropriate treatment approaches for symptom presentation (e.g., Richey et al., 2019;Strege et al., 2018); thus, further work intentionally recruiting samples of adults with SAD with co-occurring diminished PA is warranted. ...
Introduction:
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been characterized by deficits in social motivation and lack of reactivity to pleasurable stimuli (i.e., positive affect; [PA]). Recent neuroimaging work has shifted toward examining positively valenced motivational systems in SAD focused on reward responses. However, little is known about the associations of reward connectivity and PA in individuals with SAD. As such, the purpose of the current study was to determine whether connectivity among key units of reward neurocircuitry meaningfully relate to PA and whether these key units are more heterogeneous in SAD as compared to controls.
Methods:
Thirty-one participants who met diagnostic criteria for SAD and 33 control participants were included (Mage = 24.8, SD = 6.9; 55% cisgender man). Seed-based timeseries correlations were conducted in NiTime to extract region of interest (ROI) coupling correlation strength values. ANOVAs were carried out to assess whether individuals with SAD differed in ROI-to-ROI connectivity strength as compared to controls. Correlations and variance analyses were also conducted to examine the relationship between ROI-to-ROI connectivity strength and PA, as well as heterogeneity in connectivity strength and PA expression.
Results:
Weaker connectivity between the left and right orbital frontal cortex was observed when comparing the SAD to the control group. Within the SAD group, PA was associated with several reward-related ROI couplings; however, these links were not observed among controls. Results further demonstrated that individuals with SAD had significantly more variability in reward connectivity strength as compared to controls.
Conclusion:
Overall, these results provide emergent evidence for the association between reward regions and PA in individuals with SAD. Additionally, these findings show that individuals with SAD demonstrate greater heterogeneity in reward connectivity.
... Regarding anhedonia, CBT has been shown to improve subjective anhedonia in individuals with depression (Alsayednasser et al., 2022;Hanuka et al., 2022). We are not aware of a study that examined anhedonia following CBT in SAD even though anhedonia is also observed in SAD and other anxiety disorders (Brown et al., 1998;Kashdan, 2007;Kashdan et al., 2011). Since anhedonia is expected to cut across diagnostic boundaries, we would expect CBT to improve anhedonia regardless of principal diagnosis. ...
... Therefore, it was not possible to verify that participants with SAD or MDD experienced anhedonia. As previous work indicates anhedonia is transdiagostic (Brown et al., 1998;Kashdan, 2007;Kashdan et al., 2011;Pizzagalli, 2014), we expected SAD and MDD groups would not differ in capacity for pleasure, which can be parsed into anticipatory (e.g., prediction of pleasure from future reward) and consummatory (e.g., experience of pleasure in the moment) components (Berridge & Robinson, 2003;Gard et al., 2006). Since RewP represents consummatory pleasure (i.e., response to feedback), only self-reported consummatory pleasure was used to examine an association with RewP. ...
Suicidality is prevalent in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Limited data indicate the reward positivity (RewP), a neurophysiological index of reward responsivity, and subjective capacity for pleasure may serve as brain and behavioral assays for suicide risk though this has yet to be examined in SAD or MDD in the context of psychotherapy. Therefore, the current study tested whether suicidal ideation (SI) relates to RewP and subjective capacity for anticipatory and consummatory pleasure at baseline and whether Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) impacts these measures. Participants with SAD (n=55) or MDD (n=54) completed a monetary reward task (gains vs. losses) during electroencephalogram (EEG) before being randomized to CBT or supportive therapy (ST), a comparator common factors arm. EEG and SI data were collected at baseline, mid-treatment, and post-treatment; capacity for pleasure was collected at baseline and post-treatment. Baseline results showed participants with SAD or MDD were comparable in SI, RewP, and capacity for pleasure. When controlling for symptom severity, SI negatively corresponded with RewP following gains and SI positively corresponded with RewP following losses at baseline. Yet, SI did not relate to subjective capacity for pleasure. Evidence of a distinct SI-RewP association suggests RewP may serve as a transdiagnositic brain-based marker of SI. Treatment outcome revealed that among participants with SI at baseline, SI significantly decreased regardless of treatment arm; also, consummatory, but not anticipatory, pleasure increased across participants regardless of treatment arm. RewP was stable following treatment, which has been reported in other clinical trial studies.
... We explored the following questions. In terms of actor effects, we explored whether individuals who showed more frequent (a) neutral facial expressions, more frequent (b) negative expressions, and less frequent (c) happy facial expressions would experience higher levels of internalizing mental health symptoms, drawing from previous research (e.g., Davies et al., 2016;Kashdan, 2007;Keltner et al., 1995;Keltner & Kring, 1998;Sheeber et al., 2012). In terms of partner effects, we explored whether individuals whose partners showed more frequent (a) neutral and (b) negative expressions and less frequent (c) happy facial expressions would experience higher levels of mental health symptoms, drawing from previous research showing links between heightened negative emotional behavior and poorer mental health outcomes in adolescent-parent dyads (Lougheed et al., 2016;Schwartz et al., 2012;Waslin et al., 2022) and general accounts of the benefits of positive facial expressions (e.g., Keltner & Kring, 1998). ...
... The present study did not robustly support associations between positive expressions and internalizing mental health symptoms. This was unexpected in view of the existing literature (e.g., Davies et al., 2016;Kashdan, 2007), and future research will be needed to follow up. ...
Parent–child relationships are hotbeds of emotion and play a key role in mental health. The present proof-of-concept study examined facial expressions of emotion during adolescent–parent interactions and links with internalizing mental health symptoms. Neutral, negative, and positive facial expressions were objectively measured in 28 parent–adolescent dyads during three 10-min dyadic interactions. Internalizing mental health symptoms were measured using anxiety and depressive symptom questionnaires. Data were analyzed using actor–partner interdependence modeling. Results revealed that higher levels of (a) adolescents’ neutral facial expressions as well as (b) parents’ negative facial expressions were associated with higher levels of adolescents’ mental health symptoms. Findings did not support a robust link between (c) positive expressions and mental health symptoms. Together, these results demonstrate the utility of facial expressions of emotion during parent–child interactions as behavioral correlates of adolescents’ internalizing mental health symptoms, highlight the need for replication with larger samples, and suggest directions for future research.
... In line with these findings, multiple studies have strongly linked PA dysregulation to depressive disorders (for review, see Gilbert, 2012). Moreover, some studies also demonstrate the link between PA dysregulation and various anxiety disorders (Kashdan, 2007;Kendall et al., 2015), even when the role of depressive mood or NA is controlled for (Eisner et al., 2009). Thus, although the contribution of NA dysregulation appears to be more important in depressive and anxiety disorders, the role of PA intensity still appears to be important alongside NA intensity and NA instability. ...
Introduction
Mood and anxiety disorders are characterized by abnormal levels of positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA) and changes in how emotions unfold over time. To better prevent and treat those disorders, it is crucial to determine which kind of indices of emotion dynamics best predict elevated depressive and generalized anxiety symptoms.
Methods
221 individuals (60 men; mean age = 46 years, SD = 15 years) completed a 7-day ecological momentary assessment study, where their positive and negative affective experience was assessed 5 times a day. For each participant, the intensity, instability, inertia, and differentiation of PA and NA were calculated. The Estonian Emotional State Questionnaire was used to assess depressive and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms.
Results
We found that NA and PA intensity, and NA instability predicted elevated depressive and GAD symptoms. Models including NA instability alongside PA and NA intensity showed the best fit for both depression and generalized anxiety, as NA instability alongside other variables significantly increased the odds of having elevated depressive and GAD symptoms. Affective inertia, differentiation, and PA instability were not associated with depressive and GAD symptoms.
Discussion
In addition to the mean levels of affect, it is important to study other emotion dynamic indices such as NA instability, as these offer a more nuanced view of underlying emotion dysregulation processes. This could, in the long-term, help tailor more specific prevention and intervention methods for mood and anxiety disorders.
... This lack of positive affect and positive interactions, referred to as a positive affect deficit, is a central feature of SAD (Gilboa-Schechtman et al., 2014). Moreover, results from studies conducted in various domains (Kashdan, 2007) emphasize a significant relationship between social anxiety and disturbed positive cognitive experiences. The reason why social anxiety is linked to fear of both positive and negative evaluations can be explained according to the evolutionary model of social anxiety. ...
Fear of Positive Evaluation (FPE) was initially identified as an aspect of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Subsequent studies have indicated FPE also plays a significant role in other psychiatric disorders. To date, however, FPE has not been examined in schizophrenia Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate FPE in schizophrenia. Inpatients with schizophrenia (n = 34) were compared with individuals with SAD (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 30) in terms of FPE. Furthermore, the relationships between FPE and anhedonia, social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation were examined. The schizophrenia and SAD groups demonstrated significantly higher levels of FPE compared to healthy controls. Individuals with schizophrenia did not significantly differ in FPE from those with SAD. All factors including social anxiety, anhedonia, and fear of negative evaluation were significantly associated with FPE, with the association being stronger for social anxiety.Individuals with schizophrenia, similar to those with SAD, exhibit significantly high levels of FPE. This fear is associated with social anxiety, anhedonia, and fear of negative evaluation. Clinical interventions may benefit from targeting FPE when working with clients with schizophrenia. Further research in this area is needed.
... The theory emphasizes that challenges in social interactions contribute to a sense of mismatch as individuals progress through stages, influencing perceptions of fit and satisfaction [20,21]. Thus, positive experiences in social situations may interfere with excessive worry and contemplation, likely due to increased levels of internal self-focused attention that socially anxious individuals exhibit [34]. Thus, hypothetically, one possible association is that social anxiety is negatively associated with school satisfaction, albeit social anxiety may dynamically relate to perceptions impacting school satisfaction as a temporal sequence (i.e., longitudinal bidirectionality) throughout the educational journey. ...
Background: Adolescents grappling with social anxiety may experience poor school satisfaction, resorting to school-related avoidance behaviors, exemplified by absenteeism, as a coping mechanism. Understanding the role of family support in alleviating the adverse effects of social anxiety on school satisfaction is imperative for fostering supportive educational settings. Although there is literature regarding how school satisfaction promotes positive adolescent outcomes, empirical knowledge on the interrelation between social anxiety, school satisfaction, and family emotional support is limited. This study investigates the association between social anxiety, family emotional support, school satisfaction, and school absenteeism within the theoretical framework of the stage-environment fit theory to offer insight into how family emotional support can moderate the influence of social anxiety on school-related outcomes. Methods: Utilizing a population-based sample of 1861 upper secondary school pupils from the Trøndelag Young Health study “Young-HUNT3 study”, we employed an index of moderated mediation to examine the role of family emotional support in moderating the association between social anxiety and school-related avoidance behavior related to school satisfaction. Results: Family emotional support had moderated mediation association for school absenteeism (β = 0.128, 95% CI 0.019, 0.278) and extracurricular activity (β = −0.003, 95% CI −0.008, −0.000). Conclusions: This urges further investigation into the specific mechanisms and individual differences influencing these relationships, aiming to deepen our understanding of adolescents’ experiences and inform comprehensive strategies for promoting their well-being within school communities.
... is not encompassed by traditional descriptors such as FNE and is instead characterized by engagement in high levels of anger and novelty-seeking impulsive behaviors. This subtype has been replicated across different studies in various samples, both clinical and non-clinical (Erwin et al., 2003;Hofmann et al., 2004;Kachin et al., 2001;Kashdan, 2007;Kashdan et al., , 2009Kashdan & Hofmann, 2008). While there has been a growing interest in the high-anger, impulsive subtype of SAD, research has not sought further differentiation of individuals falling within this subtype. ...
Social anxiety symptoms are associated with shyness and submissiveness. However, recent work has identified a subtype within Social Anxiety Disorder characterized by high levels of anger and impulsivity. This subtype bears conceptual similarities to prior accounts of vulnerable narcissism (e.g., hypersensitivity and interpersonal reactivity). However, no prior work has systematically evaluated the common and potentially distinguishing factors of these conceptually similar yet phenotypically distinct groups. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to utilize a Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to distinguish whether vulnerable narcissistic traits are present within high anger, risk-prone individuals who are also socially anxious, or alternatively whether LPA can differentiate these profiles based on response patterns to theoretically relevant variables. LPA identified five distinct profiles based on varying levels of social anxiety, anger, impulsivity, and narcissistic traits, and supported the existence of the angry-impulsive socially anxious subtype as well as a relationship between this group and self-reported narcissistic traits. These findings have implications for treatment of this subgroup, and may provide a foundation for future research investigating why interventions for adults with SAD and angry-impulsive features often have limited success.
... Hughes et al., 2006;Kashdan, 2007). Furthermore, SAD and MDD are associated with negative predictions about future events (Strunk & Adler, 2009;Vassilopoulos, 2005), repetitive negative thinking (Klemanski et al., 2017), and heightened self-criticism (Iancu et al., 2015;Smith et al., 2021). ...
Many individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) have depressive symptoms that meet criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD). In our study, we examined the temporal relationship between symptoms of social anxiety and symptoms of depression during the course of an 11-week internet-delivered cognitive behavioral treatment (ICBT) for SAD (n = 170). Specifically, we investigated whether weekly changes in social anxiety mediated changes in depression, changes in depression mediated changes in anxiety, both or neither. In addition, we compared individuals with SAD and MDD (n = 50) and individuals with SAD and no MDD (n = 120) to examine the role of MDD as a moderator of the social anxiety-depression relationship. Lower-level mediational modeling revealed that changes in social anxiety symptoms mediated changes in depression symptoms to a greater extent than vice versa. In addition, mediation among individuals with SAD and MDD was significantly greater compared to individuals with SAD and no MDD. Our findings suggest that ICBT is effective in treating individuals with SAD regardless of comorbid depression, and that focusing ICBT interventions on social anxiety can lead to significant reductions in depression among individuals with SAD.
... There are not many studies that have directly focused on personal distress in social anxiety disorder, but it is evident from previous research that socially anxious individuals typically experience negative emotions during social interactions (e.g., Refs. [29][30][31][32][33][34]). These negative feelings may also be elicited when observing others' stress. ...
Past research investigating the relation between social anxiety (SA), empathy and emotion recognition is marked by conceptual and methodological issues. In the present study, we aim to overcome these limitations by examining whether individuals with high (n = 40) vs. low (n = 43) social anxiety differed across these two facets of empathy and whether this could be related to their recognition of emotions. We employed a naturalistic emotion recognition paradigm in which participants watched short videos of individuals (targets) sharing authentic emotional experiences. After each video, we measured self-reported empathic concern and distress, as well as their ability to recognize the emotions expressed by the targets in the videos. Our results show that individuals with high social anxiety recognized the targets’ emotions less accurately. Furthermore, high socially anxious individuals reported more personal distress than low socially anxious individuals, whereas no significant difference was found for empathic concern. The findings suggest that reduced recognition of emotions among SA individuals can be better explained by the negative effects of social stress than by a general deficit in empathy.
... There are multiple theoretical models to measure them, and they are evolving as psychological science develops (Barr & Stewart, 2015). Anxiety is viewed as a mental disorder characterized by significant alteration of cognition and emotion regulation (Kashdan, 2007). Depression, for its part, is defined as a negative condition, characterized by the experience of emotions such as sadness or dejection, which originate from the difficulty to have a positive attitude (Noonan, 2022). ...
This study examines the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on anxiety and depression symptoms among college students, paying special attention to gender-related differences. To do that, we use data from a special survey applied to all students from one of Mexico’s largest universities six months after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey was applied online through the university’s IT platform, obtaining a response rate of 48.2% and a final sample of 66,067 students. We follow an empirical strategy commonly found in the literature that involves the use of a Negative Binomial Regression Model on two mental health scales: the Hamilton Anxiety Scale and the Zung Depression Scale. The loss of household income and the resulting necessity to participate in the labor market, as well as the lack of sufficient infrastructure to face confinement and online study, were identified as the two main pathways via which the Covid-19 pandemic harmed the mental health of college students. Although female students presented higher rates of anxiety and depression and were more affected by the vulnerable economic and labor conditions of their families, male students were more affected by the lack of availability of space and equipment to attend online classes at home. Since the most economically disadvantaged students experience higher rates of anxiety and depression, particularly among women, this could have medium and long-term effects in terms of economic and gender inequality. These findings highlight the need for specific prevention and intervention initiatives to alleviate anxiety and depression.
... Social anxiety is characterized by both high negative affect and low positive affect (Brown et al., 1998). Relative to other anxiety disorders, low positive affect is unique to social anxiety and appears more closely related to the characteristics of depression (Kashdan, 2007). College students high in social anxiety may be compelled to use cannabis to modify both their high negative and low positive affective states (Buckner et al., 2013;Walukevich-Dienst et al., 2020), potentially as a form of self-medication (Khantzian, 1997). ...
Objective: College students high in social anxiety are at increased risk for cannabis-related problems. This may be particularly true when they hold strong coping-related expectancies and motives for cannabis. However, few studies have examined these constructs together in accordance with the motivational model, which posits that substance use is proximally influenced by motives and more distally influenced by expectancies. Thus, the current study examined whether the relation between social anxiety and cannabis-related problems was indirectly explained through coping-related expectancies, motives, and cannabis use. Method: Past-month cannabis users (N = 660; 71.6% female, 47.3% white non-Hispanic) from seven U.S. universities completed an online survey assessing social anxiety, and cannabis use frequency, problems, expectancies, and motives. A saturated path model examined social anxiety as a predictor of cannabis problems via coping-related expectancies and motives, and cannabis frequency. Results: There was a positive indirect effect of social anxiety on cannabis problems through cognitive and behavioral impairment expectancies, depression coping motives, and cannabis use. Social anxiety also indirectly positively related to cannabis problems via social and sexual facilitation expectancies, social anxiety coping motives, and cannabis use. Further, social anxiety indirectly positively related to cannabis problems through relaxation and tension reduction expectancies, both depression and social anxiety coping motives, and cannabis use. These indirect effects were invariant by sex assigned at birth. Conclusions: Results support using a theory-informed model of coping-related cannabis cognitions to understand the relation between social anxiety and cannabis problems. Interventions that modify coping-related cognitions may reduce cannabis-related problems in college students high in social anxiety.
... Despite earlier null findings (Naragon-Gainey, 2019; Riskind et al., 2013), support for the association between anxiety symptoms and positive affect is increasing. Several studies have shown that low positive affect is associated with social anxiety disorder (Kashdan, 2007), generalized anxiety disorder (Eisner et al., 2009), and posttraumatic stress disorder (Vinograd et al., 2021). In a daily diary study, trait anxiety was associated with increased variability of both positive and negative affect (Heller et al., 2019). ...
Objective: Positive and negative affect play critical roles in depression and anxiety treatment, but the dynamic processes of how affect changes over treatment in relation to changes in symptoms is unclear. The study goal was to examine relationships among changes in positive and negative affect with changes in depression and anxiety symptoms. Method: This secondary analysis used a combined sample (N = 196) of two trials (Craske et al., 2019, 2023) comparing positive affect treatment (PAT) to negative affect treatment. Longitudinal cross-lag panel models explored whether changes in positive and negative affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; Watson et al., 1988) predicted subsequent changes in depression and anxiety symptoms (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), whether symptoms predicted subsequent changes in affect, and whether treatment condition moderated these relationships. Results: Increases in positive affect predicted subsequent decreases in depression and anxiety symptoms, regardless of treatment condition. Symptoms did not reciprocally predict changes in positive affect. For individuals in PAT, decreases in negative affect predicted subsequent decreases in symptoms. Moreover, decreases in symptoms predicted subsequent decreases in negative affect, regardless of treatment condition. Conclusions: Results did not support a reciprocal relationship between positive affect and symptoms of depression and anxiety since positive affect predicted depression and anxiety symptoms but not vice versa. Results supported a reciprocal relationship between negative affect and symptoms of depression and anxiety since negative affect predicted depression and anxiety symptoms in PAT, and depression and anxiety symptoms predicted negative affect in both treatment conditions.
... van Deursen et al. (87) found that anxiety was more closely related to process-oriented smartphone use than to socialoriented use. This finding supports social avoidance theory (88) and safety behavior theory (89), suggesting that anxiety can result in avoiding social-oriented smartphone use and instead opting for more process-oriented smartphone use, due to avoidance of social interactions and maintenance of safety behaviors. In the context of compensation Internet use theory (CIUT), anxiety should specifically drive the choice of process-oriented smartphone use as an alternative to choosing social media (90). ...
Background
The previous literature has demonstrated that depression, anxiety, and stress are significant predictors of problematic social media use. However, the manifestation of problematic social media use varies, and the predictive relationship between depression, anxiety, and stress with different subgroups of problematic social media use remains unclear. The aim of this research was to evaluate latent subgroups of problematic social media use among college students and to investigate the impact of depression, anxiety, and stress on these latent subgroups.
Methods
A survey was carried out among college students in China using a cross-sectional approach. A total of 955 participants were included, with a mean age of 19.50 ± 1.22 years. Participants completed questionnaires containing the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). The study employed latent profile analysis (LPA) to investigate latent subgroups of Chinese college students with problematic social media use, and a robust three-step approach was used to develop predictive regression mixed models of depression, anxiety, and stress on latent subgroups.
Results
Problematic social media use of Chinese college students can be categorized into four latent subgroups, namely, the high-risk group, the moderate-risk with pleasure group, the moderate-risk with compulsion group, and the low-risk group. The regression model showed that there was a significant difference between the high-risk group and the low-risk group on the stress scale. There was a significant difference between the moderate-risk with pleasure group and the moderate-risk with compulsion group on the depression scale.
Conclusion
Problematic social media use is heterogeneous, with depression and stress being potentially key factors influencing problematic social media use. Depression would make college students more likely to be moderate-risk with compulsion problematic social media users than moderate-risk with pleasure problematic social media users, and stress would make college students more likely to be high-risk problematic social media users than low-risk problematic social media users.
... SAD is distinct from other anxiety disorders in that it is characterized by both high NA and low PA [19], demonstrating an affective profile similar to depression. In a meta-analysis of 19 studies (n = 2,976), social anxiety symptom severity and PA were moderately negatively correlated (r = − 21; 95% CI: -. 16 to -.26) [20], and this association remains even after controlling for comorbid depression symptoms. ...
People with social anxiety disorder (SAD) experience less positive affect (PA) and more negative affect (NA) than the general population, a pattern more similar to depression than other anxiety disorders. There is a dearth of research assessing whether PA is targeted effectively during treatment, even though this is an important emotional aspect for quality of life. The primary aim of this study was to examine daily changes in self-report PA and NA among a sample of partial hospital program (PHP) patients with SAD. A secondary aim was to examine baseline depression severity as a moderator of daily PA and NA change. Patients were adults (N=241) diagnosed with SAD seeking treatment at a typically 1–2-week transdiagnostic behavioral health PHP from September 2017 to September 2019. Patients completed (1) the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Short Form (IPANAS-SF) each treatment day to assess affect and (2) the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Item Version (PHQ-9) at baseline to assess depressive symptoms. Data from the first nine days of treatment were included in analyses: two-level multilevel model (MLM) analyses were used to address study aim 1, and baseline depression severity was added as a moderator to address study aim 2. Patients reported significant decreases in NA but no significant changes in PA over the course of PHP treatment. Additionally, there was no significant evidence of depression moderating NA change; however, depression did moderate PA change. These findings suggest that patients with SAD report significant decreases in NA but no change in PA over transdiagnostic group treatment, with increases in PA being stronger among patients with more severe depressive symptoms. PA captures an important emotional experience for living a fulfilling life, yet CBT-based treatments may not be effectively improving these areas. Future studies targeting PA in SAD treatment can inform whether doing so ultimately improves treatment outcomes for SAD.
... Through a secondary analysis of data collected in a large sample, we examined sensed features' prospective relationships to each social anxiety subdomain severity, as well as their utility as distal or proximal predictors, using sensor data windows shifting from directly before the symptom assessment to 2 weeks prior (Fig. 1). Given the centrality of diminished positive experiences in social anxiety (Kashdan, 2007), and the role of Fig. 1. Testing the influence of past-2-week sensor data on social anxiety symptom subdomains (avoidance, fear, and physiological distress) with a 2 week lag (distal prediction), 1 week lag (medial prediction), and 0 week lag (proximal prediction). ...
Background
Prior literature links passively sensed information about a person's location, movement, and communication with social anxiety. These findings hold promise for identifying novel treatment targets, informing clinical care, and personalizing digital mental health interventions. However, social anxiety symptoms are heterogeneous; to identify more precise targets and tailor treatments, there is a need for personal sensing studies aimed at understanding differential predictors of the distinct subdomains of social anxiety. Our objective was to conduct a large-scale smartphone-based sensing study of fear, avoidance, and physiological symptoms in the context of trait social anxiety over time.
Methods
Participants (n = 1013; 74.6 % female; M age = 40.9) downloaded the LifeSense app, which collected continuous passive data (e.g., GPS, communication, app and device use) over 16 weeks. We tested a series of multilevel linear regression models to understand within- and between-person associations of 2-week windows of passively sensed smartphone data with fear, avoidance, and physiological distress on the self-reported Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN). A shifting sensor lag was applied to examine how smartphone features related to SPIN subdomains 2 weeks in the future (distal prediction), 1 week in the future (medial prediction), and 0 weeks in the future (proximal prediction).
Results
A decrease in time visiting novel places was a strong between-person predictor of social avoidance over time (distal β = −0.886, p = .002; medial β = −0.647, p = .029; proximal β = −0.818, p = .007). Reductions in call- and text-based communications were associated with social avoidance at both the between- (distal β = −0.882, p = .002; medial β = −0.932, p = .001; proximal β = −0.918, p = .001) and within- (distal β = −0.191, p = .046; medial β = −0.213, p = .028) person levels, as well as between-person fear of social situations (distal β = −0.860, p < .001; medial β = −0.892, p < .001; proximal β = −0.886, p < .001) over time. There were fewer significant associations of sensed data with physiological distress. Across the three subscales, smartphone data explained 9–12 % of the variance in social anxiety.
Conclusion
Findings have implications for understanding how social anxiety manifests in daily life, and for personalizing treatments. For example, a signal that someone is likely to begin avoiding social situations may suggest a need for alternative types of exposure-based interventions compared to a signal that someone is likely to begin experiencing increased physiological distress. Our results suggest that as a prophylactic means of targeting social avoidance, it may be helpful to deploy interventions involving social exposures in response to decreases in time spent visiting novel places.
... In turn, reduced reward sensitivity, especially during socially rewarding experiences, could amplify symptoms [66]. Decreased positive experiences in social phobia [20,67] and emerging social anhedonia [68] can be consequences. ...
Background
Reward sensitivity constitutes a potential key mechanism regarding the etiology and maintenance of mental disorders, especially depression. However, due to a lack of longitudinal studies, the temporal dynamics are not clear yet. Although some evidence indicates that reward processing could be a transdiagnostic mechanism of disorders, these observations could be also a product of comorbidity with depression. This study aimed at investigating the temporal dynamics of reward sensitivity and the course of psychopathological symptoms in a longitudinal investigation, while taking a possible mediating role of depression into account.
Methods
We conducted a three-wave longitudinal online survey with a 4-week interval. A total of N = 453 participants filled out all three questionnaires. Reward sensitivity was assessed with the Positive Valence System Scale-21 (PVSS-21), depression with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), eating disorder symptoms with the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire-8 (EDE-Q-8), social anxiety with the Mini-social phobia inventory (Mini-SPIN) and alcohol consumption with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C). Cross-lagged panels and mediation analyses were calculated using path analyses.
Results
Depressive and eating disorder symptoms predicted reward insensitivity at later points in time. Effects were larger from T2 to T3. A bidirectional relationship concerning social anxiety was found. Higher alcohol consumption predicted higher reward sensitivity. Depression at T2 fully mediated the association between psychopathological symptoms at T1 and reward sensitivity at T3 for social anxiety and eating disorder symptoms.
Conclusions
Our findings imply that reduced reward sensitivity seems to be a consequence rather than an antecedent of psychopathological symptoms. Comorbid depression plays a crucial role in other mental disorders regarding observed hyposensitivity towards rewards. Therefore, our results do not support a transdiagnostic notion of reward sensitivity, but they indicate a potential role of reward sensitivity for symptom persistence.
Trial registration
The study was preregistered at the Open Science Framework (OSF) (https://archive.org/details/osf-registrations-6n3s8-v1; registration DOI https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/6N3S8).
... These characteristics related to positive emotions are in line with the results reported in previous emodiversity research conducted over several days (17,18), implying the importance of not only inter-day but also intra-day evaluation of the variation in emotional experiences. Studies on anxiety and mood disorders, focusing on the view of emotion regulation, suggest that such disorders may develop or become chronic with diminished positive affect experiences (50,51) and/or dysregulation of negative affect in daily life (52,53). Anhedonia, which is the loss of pleasure and motivation, is one of the main symptoms of depression (54,55). ...
Introduction
In recent years, the widespread shift from on-site to remote work has led to a decline in employees’ mental health. Consequently, this transition to remote work poses several challenges for both employees and employers. To address these challenges, there is an urgent need for techniques to detect declining mental health in employees’ daily lives. Emotion-based health assessment, which examines emotional diversity (emodiversity) experienced in daily life, is a possible solution. However, the feasibility of emodiversity remains unclear, especially from the perspectives of its applicability to remote workers and countries other than Europe and the United States. This study investigated the association between subjective mental health decline and emotional factors, such as emodiversity, as well as physical conditions, in remote workers in Japan.
Method
To explore this association, we conducted a consecutive 14-day prospective observational experiment on 18 Japanese remote workers. This experiment comprised pre-and post-questionnaire surveys, physiological sensing, daytime emotion self-reports, and subjective health reports at end-of-day. In daytime emotion self-reports, we introduced smartphone-based experience sampling (also known as ecological momentary assessment), which is suitable for collecting context-dependent self-reports precisely in a recall bias-less manner. For 17 eligible participants (mean ± SD, 39.1 ± 9.1 years), we evaluated whether and how the psycho-physical characteristics, including emodiversity, changed on subjective mental health-declined experimental days after analyzing descriptive statistics.
Results
Approximately half of the experimental days (46.3 ± 18.9%) were conducted under remote work conditions. Our analysis showed that physical and emotional indices significantly decreased on mental health-declined days. Especially on high anxiety and depressive days, we found that emodiversity indicators significantly decreased (global emodiversity on anxiety conditions, 0.409 ± 0.173 vs. 0.366 ± 0.143, p = 0.041), and positive emotional experiences were significantly suppressed (61.5 ± 7.7 vs. 55.5 ± 6.4, p < 0.001).
Discussion
Our results indicated that the concept of emodiversity can be applicable even to Japanese remote workers, whose cultural background differs from that of individuals in Europe and the United States. Emodiversity showed significant associations with emotion dysregulation-related mental health deterioration, suggesting the potential of emodiversity as useful indicators in managing such mental health deterioration among remote workers.
... Importantly, recent work indicates that this pattern of effects extends beyond diagnostic categoriessubclinical symptoms of SAD also negatively impact interpersonal coordination (Macpherson et al., 2020;Macpherson & Miles, 2023). As such, in line with contemporary continuum-based models of psychopathology (Bögels et al., 2010;Kashdan, 2007), the present research employed a subclinical sample. ...
Interpersonal coordination is a key determinant of successful social interaction but is disrupted for people who experience social anxiety. Effective coordination rests on individuals directing their attention toward others, an effect well-documented in previous literature. Yet, little research has considered the concurrent behaviour of interaction partners. Using a novel virtual reality task, we investigated how partner gaze (i.e., direct vs. averted) influenced the emergence of interpersonal coordination. The results revealed two novel effects: (i) spontaneous coordination was diminished in the averted (cf. direct) gaze condition; (ii) spontaneous coordination was positively related to symptoms of social anxiety, but only when partner gaze was averted. This latter finding contrasts the extant literature and points to interaction intensity as a factor governing the social anxiety-coordination association. More broadly, this work provides further evidence that emergent patterns of interpersonal coordination fluctuate as a function of changes in social context and the behaviour of others.
... Sosyal kaygı, bireylerin başkaları tarafından değerlendirileceği olaylarda, değerlendirmelerin tamamının neredeyse olumsuz olabileceği korkusu ve kişinin kaygı düzeyinin en üst seviyelerde olması olarak bilinmektedir (Singh ve Barmola, 2015). Sosyal kaygıya her yaştan kişilerin olumusz etkilendiği fakat ergenlik dönemlerindeki bireylerin değerlendirilme ve izlenme kaygısından dolayı sosyal kaygıdan daha fazla etkilendikleri bilinmektedir (Ingles ve ark., 2005;Kashdan, 2007). Sosyal kaygı ile ilgili yapılan çalışmalar incelendiğinde kaygının başlangıcının 12 yaşları olduğu gözlemlenirken, orta ergenlik dönemleri olan 13-14 yaşlarının ise kaygının görülme sıklığı olarak en yoğun ve en fazla yaşanılan dönemleri olduğu tespit edilmiştir (Johnson ve ark., 2006). ...
... The identified relationships are usually small (around r = 0.10) and may indicate that these kinds of features could exert a greater influence on academic achievement through the mediation of more circumscribed, study-related factors (as noted by previous studies: [17,18]. As for mental health symptoms, evidence is sparser: perseverance [19] and trait emotional intelligence [6] have consistently been found to be negatively related with depression, anxiety, and other mental health symptoms, while evidence is less robust for curiosity [20,21], creativity [22], and critical thinking [23]. ...
Numerous noncognitive factors have been shown to influence students’ academic and nonacademic outcomes, yet few studies have contemporarily studied these factors to understand their specific roles. The present study tested a model in which five soft skills (i.e., epistemic curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, perseverance, and social awareness) were conceived as personal qualities that influence achievement and general distress through the mediation of four study-related factors (i.e., achievement emotions, self-regulated learning strategies, motivational beliefs, and study resilience). A total of 606 Italian university students (153 males, Mage = 22.74, SDage = 3.72) participated in the study and completed self-report measures of soft skills, study-related factors, and general distress measures; grades were considered for academic achievement. Results showed that all four study-related factors significantly mediated the relationship of soft skills with academic achievement, while only achievement emotions and study resilience emerged as significant mediators between soft skills and general distress. Our findings indicated complex relations between individual factors and students’ outcomes due to several factors. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... Adopting this latter approach may allow for deeper and more personalized insights when investigating normal amygdala functioning in affective processing (see Sander et al., 2018), in the modulation of several cognitive mechanisms such as attention (see Vuilleumier, 2005), memory (Chaaya et al., 2018), or decision-making (De Martino et al., 2006, and more generally in mechanisms subserving both appetitive-and aversive-related behaviors (Everitt et al., 2003), but also when investigating altered amygdala responding in affective disorders. Social motivation, such as maintaining social rank and bonding, is prominent in individuals suffering from social anxiety (e.g., Kashdan, 2007;Kashdan et al., 2008;Weisman et al., 2011). Importantly, socially anxious individuals often exhibit elevated amygdala responses to socially threatening information (cf. ...
Based on an affective neuroscience approach to appraisal theories of emotion, the present study tested the hypothesis that the amygdala is involved in the processing of concern-relevance. Thirty-five students with varying intrinsic academic motivation performed three target-detection tasks using affectively neutral letter stimuli as targets. In one task, participants were given a cover story that their task performance was indicative of future academic success. This intrinsic motivation condition was controlled with two other conditions: an extrinsic motivation condition allowing participants to earn money for themselves based on their task performance, and a baseline condition where participants were simply requested to perform the task while they were told that we were calibrating the scanner. Participants reported their intrinsic academic motivation using a standardized academic motivation scale. Results illustrated an interaction effect both at the whole-brain and region of interest levels. When accounting for all three conditions, only during the intrinsic motivation condition did bilateral amygdala activation significantly increase with increasing academic motivation scores when responding to targets (vs. nontargets). Findings suggest that intrinsic academic motivation modulates amygdala response to otherwise neutral stimuli when they are relevant to academic success, consistent with the proposal that the amygdala is sensitive to the degree to which stimuli are relevant to the individual’s concerns. This stresses the need for more personalized analyses of brain responses to stimuli and tasks that are typically considered “neutral” and hold important implications for psychiatric populations suffering from deficiencies in affective processing, particularly anxiety disorders.
... One limitation of this study is the use of a non-clinical sample, limiting the generalisability and clinical application of our findings regarding social anxiety. However, affective disorders can also be considered from a continuous perspective, whereby behaviour varies across a continuum ranging from healthy to psychopathological (Kashdan, 2007). Nonetheless, future research should assess whether the current findings also apply to individuals with clinically-significant levels of social anxiety. ...
Unlabelled:
Reward processing undergoes marked changes in adolescence, with social interactions representing a powerful source of reward. Reward processing is also an important factor in the development of social anxiety disorder, a condition that most commonly first appears in adolescence. This study investigated the relationship between age, social reward processing and social anxiety in a cross-sectional sample of female participants (N = 80) aged 13-34. Participants performed two versions of a probabilistic reward anticipation task, in which a speeded response could result in different probabilities of receiving either social or monetary rewarding feedback. Participants also completed self-report assessments of social reward value, trait anxiety and social anxiety symptoms. At high reward probabilities, performance on both reward tasks showed a quadratic effect of age, with the fastest responses at around 22-24 years. A similar quadratic effect was found for subjective liking ratings of both reward stimuli, although these were not associated with performance. Social anxiety was not associated with a subjective liking of the rewards but did predict performance on both tasks at all reward probabilities. Age-related variation in reward processing was not accounted for by age-related variation in social anxiety symptoms, suggesting that, while both social anxiety and age were associated with variation in reward processing, their effects were largely independent. Together, these findings provide evidence that social reward processing continues to develop across adolescence and that individual differences in social anxiety should be considered when considering reward sensitivity during this period.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04551-y.
... Sosyal kaygı, bireyin başkaları tarafından değerlendirileceği bir ya da birden fazla olayda, bu değerlendirmelerin neredeyse tamamının olumsuz olacağına yönelik korku ve anksiyetenin eşlik ettiği durumlar olarak tanımlanmaktadır (94). Sosyal kaygı her yaştan bireyi olumsuz anlamda etkileyebilirken ergenlik dönemindeki bireylerin diğerleri tarafından izlenme ve değerlendirilme kaygısı ile birlikte sosyal kaygı sorunundan daha çok etkilendikleri belirtilmektedir (30,31). Yapılan çalışmalar sosyal kaygının başlangıç yaşının 12 yaş civarında olduğunu, orta ergenlik dönemi olan 13-14 yaşlarının ise sosyal kaygının görülme sıklığının en fazla olduğu yaş aralığı olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır (32).Sosyal kaygısı yüksek bireyler, diğer insanlar ile birlikte iken kaygı, utangaçlık, korku, stres gibi olumsuz duygular ile karşı karşıya kalabildikleri için yüz yüze iletişim yolunu tercih etmekten kaçınmakta (24) gizlilik, anında cevap vermeme alternatifi (25,26,27) gibi nedenlerden dolayı daha konforlu ve rahat bir iletişim sağladığı için sosyal medya aracılığıyla iletişim kurmayı tercih etmektedirler (28,29,96). ...
Objective: The aim of the current study was to determine the effects of social anxiety, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, emotional self-efficacy on predicting adolescents' social media addiction. Method: The study group of this research consisted of 532 students continuing their education in the 7th and 8th grades. While determining the study group of the research, easily accessible case sampling, one of the sampling methods, was used. The relational survey method was administered in this study. "Social Media Addiction Scale for Adolescents", the "Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents", the "Self-Efficacy Scale for Children" and the "Personal Information Form" were used as data collection instruments. Results: The results of the study show that there is a positive significant relationship between social media addiction and social anxiety and a negative significant relationship between social media addiction and academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and emotional self-efficacy. According to the results of the multiple regression analysis, it was concluded that adolescents' social anxiety, academic self-efficacy and social self-efficacy scores were a significant predictor of social media addiction, but emotional self-efficacy scores were not a significant predictor of social media addiction. Conclusion: The findings obtained as a result of the research were weighed in the context of other research findings, and suggestions were made to the practitioners and researchers.
... While investing time and effort into seeking and mastering novel challenges, people also develop on a cognitive level. In this context, curiosity was also linked to higher stress tolerance and higher likelihood of stepping outside one's own comfort zone (Kashdan, 2007). ...
Similar to physical ageing, cognitive ageing is mostly associated with decline and loss (e.g. in terms of memory, executive functions, visual and linguistic abilities) making it hard to envision positive changes. Both negative stereotypes (e.g. older people suffering from dementia) and positive stereotypes of ageing (e.g. wise older individuals) influence cognitive evolution across the later stages of life. Understanding both gains and losses associated with cognitive ageing and proposing interventions that foster strengths rather than prevent deficits represents an interesting challenge. This chapter explores cognitive ageing and development from a positive psychology perspective. First, it examines the potential meanings of cognitive development in midlife and older age, as proposed by theoretical models and the perspectives of ageing individuals. Then, it goes on to summarize a few instruments that can help measure cognitive improvement in older age. Next, it explores the relevance of cognitive development and how it is linked to other forms of development in midlife and older age (i.e. emotional growth, social skills improvement, physical and personality change). Finally, the chapter provides information on how to foster cognitive development among older individuals and prevent dementia by using positive psychology principles and a developmental assets approach.
... The current study examined potential differences in discrete positive emotions between individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for SAD, MDD or those without. The SAD, MDD, and comorbid groups displayed deficits relative to controls across all discrete positive emotions -consistent with prior literature pointing to global diminished positive affect in these conditions (Brown et al., 1998;Kashdan, 2007). Previous studies suggested that pride in particular may be robustly diminished in SAD and MDD, with reduced experiences of love (in SAD) and joy (in MDD) also characterizing these conditions compared to other positive emotions (Cohen & Huppert, 2018;Gruber et al., 2011). ...
Background
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are both associated with diminished global positive affect. However, little is known about which specific positive emotions are affected, and which positive emotions differentiate MDD from SAD.
Methods
Four groups of adults recruited from the community were examined (N = 272): control group (no psychiatric history; n = 76), SAD without MDD group (n = 76), MDD without SAD group (n = 46), and comorbid group (diagnoses of both SAD and MDD; n = 74). Discrete positive emotions were measured with the Modified Differential Emotions Scale, which asked about the frequency of 10 different positive emotions experienced during the past week.
Results
The control group had higher scores on all positive emotions compared to all three clinical groups. The SAD group had higher scores on awe, inspiration, interest, and joy compared to the MDD group, and higher scores on those emotions, as well as amusement, hope, love, pride, and contentment, than the comorbid group. MDD and comorbid groups did not differ on any positive emotions. Gratitude did not differ significantly between clinical groups.
Conclusion
Adopting a discrete positive emotion approach revealed shared and distinct features across SAD, MDD, and their comorbidity. We consider possible mechanisms underlying transdiagnostic vs. disorder-specific emotion deficits.
... Thus, following overinclusion, high and low socially anxious individuals exhibit similar levels of positive affect. Therefore, our results cannot be explained by general, contextindependent, social anxiety related positive affect deficits (Brown et al., 1998;Hughes et al., 2006;Kashdan, 2007). ...
Belongingness is a central biopsychosocial system. Challenges to belongingness (i.e. exclusion/ostracism) engender robust negative effects on affect and cognitions. Whether overinclusion – getting more than one’s fair share of social attention – favourably impacts affect and cognitions remains an open question. This pre-registered meta-analysis includes twenty-two studies (N = 2757) examining overinclusion in the context of the Cyberball task. We found that the estimated overall effect size of overinclusion on positive affect was small but robust, and the effect on fundamental needs cognitions (belongingness, self-esteem, meaningful existence and control) was moderate in size and positive in direction. Notably, the effect sizes of overinclusion were smaller than the corresponding effects of exclusion. Finally, the effects of overinclusion on positive affect were greater for high, as compared to low, socially anxious individuals. Exploring the sequelae of the full range of inclusion experiences – from exclusion to overinclusion – may enrich our understanding of the functioning of the belongingness system as well as its interaction with another central biosocial system – the social status system.
... In the first such demonstration, Macpherson, Marie, Schön, and Miles (2020) reported a negative relationship between interpersonal synchrony and traits related to both social anxiety and autism. 1 Here, increases in symptomology were predictive of less stable interpersonal coordination when participants jointly engaged in a pendulum swinging task. This finding supports contemporary views of psychopathology, which posit a continuum approach whereby many of the characteristics found in clinical populations may also be seen to varying degrees in the general population (e.g., Bögels et al., 2010;Kashdan, 2007). Accordingly, we adopted a continuum approach in the present research. ...
... Relatedly, social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) suggests that victims of workplace ostracism are less likely to be altruistic after an unmerited reciprocity violation, and OCBG denial is one manifestation (Judge et al., 2006). Socially anxious individuals are also averse to prosociality due to negative affect, lower motivation for novelty, and conflict avoidance (Davila & Beck, 2002;Kashdan, 2007), factors that collectively reduce one's propensity to socialize, particularly with the ostracizing group. ...
We examine the impact of group attractiveness on the relationship between workplace ostracism and organizational citizenship behaviours directed toward the group (OCBG). Research has long overlooked contextual features of ostracism at work. Using an experimental vignette methodology (N = 312), we found that physical attractiveness was critical in determining the mechanism by which ostracism influenced OCBG. The victims' social anxiety served as a mediator through which ostracism influenced OCBG when the ostracizing group was deemed to be low on attractiveness. However, the negative direct effect between ostracism and OCBG was observed only when group attractiveness was high. Our findings have implications for understanding the interplay between victims' individual differences and the context in which workplace ostracism is manifested. Dans cette étude, nous examinons l'impact de l'attractivité du groupe sur la relation entre l'ostracisme au travail et les comportements de citoyenneté organisationnelle dirigés vers le groupe (OCBG). Les chercheurs ont longtemps négligé les caractéristiques contextuelles de l'ostracisme au travail. En utilisant une méthodologie de vignette expérimentale (N = 312), nous constatons que l'attrait physique est essentiel pour déterminer le mécanisme par lequel l'ostracisme influence l’OCBG. L'anxiété sociale des victimes modère l'influence de l'ostracisme sur les objectifs de bien‐être au travail lorsque le groupe ostracisé est considéré comme peu attrayant. Cependant, on observe un effet direct négatif entre l'ostracisme et l’OCBG uniquement lorsque l'attractivité du groupe est élevée. Ces résultats permettent de comprendre l'interaction entre les différences individuelles des victimes et le contexte dans lequel se manifeste l'ostracisme au travail.
... Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common mental disorders in children and adolescents [1], characterized by excessive fears of social situations [2], negative emotionality, and social anhedonia [3,4]. Adolescence is the most prevalent period for the emergence of pathological social anxiety [5,6]. ...
Subcortical brain regions play essential roles in the pathology of social anxiety disorder (SAD). While adolescence is the peak period of SAD, the relationships between altered development of the subcortical regions during this period and SAD are still unclear. This study investigated the age-dependent alterations in structural co-variance among subcortical regions and between subcortical and cortical regions, aiming to reflect aberrant coordination during development in the adolescent with SAD. High-resolution T1-weighted images were obtained from 76 adolescents with SAD and 67 healthy controls (HC), ranging from 11 to 17.9 years. Symptom severity was evaluated with the Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC) and the Depression Self Rating Scale for Children (DSRS-C). Structural co-variance and sliding age-window analyses were used to detect age-dependent group differences in inter-regional coordination patterns among subcortical regions and between subcortical and cortical regions. The volume of the striatum significantly correlated with SAD symptom severity. The SAD group exhibited significantly enhanced structural co-variance among key regions of the striatum (putamen and caudate). While the co-variance decreased with age in healthy adolescents, the co-variance in SAD adolescents stayed high, leading to more apparent group differences in middle adolescence. Moreover, the striatum’s mean structural co-variance with cortical regions decreased with age in HC but increased with age in SAD. Adolescents with SAD suffer aberrant developmental coordination among the key regions of the striatum and between the striatum and cortical regions. The degree of incoordination is age-dependent, which may represent a neurodevelopmental trait of SAD.
Bu çalışmada erişkinlerin mükemmeliyetçilik ile sosyal kaygı ve kaçınma puanları arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesi; sosyal kaygı, kaçınma ve mükemmeliyetçilik puanlarının cinsiyet, gelir durumu ve doğum sırası değişkenleri açısından farkının incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmanın evrenini İstanbul’da yaşayan bireyler oluştururken örneklem grubunu İstanbul ilinde yaşayan 40 kişi oluşturmaktadır. Veri toplama aracı olarak Kişisel Bilgi Formu, Liebowitz Sosyal Fobi Belirtileri Ölçeği ve Çok Boyutlu Mükemmeliyetçilik Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Yapılan araştırma bulguları doğrultusunda kaygı, kaçınma, mükemmeliyetçilik puanlarının cinsiyet ve doğum sırası değişkenlerine göre anlamlı farkı bulunmazken; mükemmeliyetçilik puanı ile kaygı ve kaçınma puanları arasında anlamlı bir ilişki olmadığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Elde edilen sonuçları yorumlarken örneklem sınırlılığı dolayısıyla örneklemden elde edilen mükemmeliyetçilik puanlarının düşük olması, mükemmeliyetçiliğin ve kaygının çok boyutlu yapısı vd. nedenlerin göz önünde bulundurulması gerekmektedir. Elde edilen bulgular, alan yazında yer alan sonuçların kimi tarafından desteklenmekte; kimi tarafından ise desteklenmemektedir. Bu durum ilgili alan yazın incelenirken karıştırıcı değişkenlerin ve yordayıcıların dikkate alınması gerekliliğinin önemini ortaya koymaktadır.
Do people with social anxiety (SA) benefit from positive memory retrieval that heightens self-relevant meaning? In this preregistered study, an analog sample of 255 participants with self-reported clinically significant symptoms of SA were randomly assigned to retrieve and process a positive social-autobiographical memory by focusing on either its self-relevant meaning (deep processing) or its perceptual features (superficial processing). Participants were then socially excluded and instructed to reimagine their positive memory. Analyses revealed that participants assigned to the deep processing condition experienced significantly greater improvements than participants in the superficial processing condition in positive affect, social safeness, and positive beliefs about others during initial memory retrieval and in negative and positive beliefs about the self following memory reactivation during recovery from exclusion. These novel findings highlight the potential utility of memory-based interventions for SA that work by “hooking” self-meaning onto recollections of positive interpersonal experiences that elicit feelings of social acceptance.
Elevated levels of Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality (N/NE) and, less consistently, lower levels of Extraversion/Positive Emotionality (E/PE) confer risk for pathological depression and anxiety. To date, most prospective-longitudinal research has narrowly focused on traditional diagnostic categories, creating uncertainty about the precise nature of these prospective associations. Adopting an explicitly hierarchical-dimensional approach, we examined the association between baseline variation in personality and longitudinal changes in broad and narrow internalizing-symptom dimensions in 234 emerging adults followed for 2.5 years, during the transition from older adolescence to early adulthood. N/NE was uniquely associated with increases in broadband internalizing—the core cognitive and affective symptoms that cut across the emotional disorders—and unrelated to the narrower dimensions of positive affect and anxious arousal that differentiate specific internalizing presentations. Variation in E/PE and several other Big Five traits was cross-sectionally but not prospectively related to longitudinal changes in specific internalizing symptoms. Exploratory personality-facet-level analyses provided preliminary evidence of more granular associations between personality and longitudinal changes in internalizing symptoms. These observations enhance the precision of models linking personality to internalizing illness, highlight the centrality of N/NE to increases in transdiagnostic internalizing symptoms during a key developmental chapter, and set the stage for developing more effective prevention and treatment strategies.
This research aims to determine the social anxiety levels of pre-service teachers who use social media using latent profile analysis (LPA) and to reveal whether the covariates (Gender, age, socio-economic status, place of residence, membership durations to social media sites, daily social media usage time, and the number of friends in social media environments) determined in the research are related to profiles. In the descriptive survey study, 249 pre-service teachers formed the study group. The data were obtained using the Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users. The social anxiety of pre-service teachers using social media was determined as two profiles: Profile-1 (n = 191; 77%: Low Anxiety) and Profile-2 (n = 58; 23%: High Anxiety). Multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed to determine how covariates differ in profile memberships. As a result of the analysis showed that age, socio-economic status, membership durations to social media sites, daily social media usage times, and the number of friends in social media environments did not differentiate profile memberships. On the other hand, according to gender, it is seen that males experience less social media anxiety than females. In addition, pre-service teachers living in metropolitan cities have less social media anxiety.
Background:
Social disconnection is common and impairing in anxiety and depressive disorders and does not respond sufficiently to available treatments. The positive valence system supports social bond formation and maintenance yet is often hyporesponsive in those with anxiety or depression. We conducted an experimental therapeutics trial testing the hypothesis that targeting positive valence processes through cognitive and behavioral strategies would enhance responsivity to social rewards, a core mechanism underlying social connectedness.
Methods:
N=68 adults endorsing clinically elevated anxiety and/or depression with social impairment were randomized 1:1:1 to 5- (n=23) or 10-sessions (n=22) of Amplification of Positivity (AMP) treatment or waitlist (n=23). Pre- to post-treatment change in striatal activity (primary outcome) during social reward anticipation measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging; reactivity to a social affiliation task (secondary); and self-reported social connectedness (exploratory) were examined. Primary analyses compared AMP (doses combined) vs. waitlist. A second aim compared doses.
Results:
AMP engaged the hypothesized treatment target - leading to greater striatal activation during anticipation of social rewards versus waitlist (d=1.01 [95% CI 0.42, 1.61]; largest striatal volume). AMP yielded larger improvements on positive affect and approach behavior during the affiliation task (but not other outcomes), and social connectedness. Larger striatal and social connectedness increases were observed for 5- vs. 10-session AMP (d range=0.08-1.03).
Conclusions:
Teaching people with anxiety or depression strategies to increase positive thoughts, behaviors, and emotions enhances activity in brain regions governing social reward processing and promotes social connectedness. Social reward sensitivity may be a transdiagnostic target for remediating social disconnection.
Research has highlighted the negative effects of early neglect and abuse on the development of emotional self-regulation and attachment. Attention has focused more on negative affect states related to past adverse and traumatic experiences than on the deactivating effects of the absence of early shared positive affect states from parent-infant play, warmth, and affection. Treatment strategies for survivors of early neglect and abuse have focused on methods to metabolize memories of traumatic events. Skills development models have emphasized the benefits of distress tolerance, acceptance, and mindfulness training for patients with persistent negative affect states. Research on the benefits of therapeutic interventions intended to increase positive affect indicates they promote prosocial behaviors and creativity, broaden the scope of attention, reduce emotional symptoms and behavioral problems, and improve physical health. Within the field of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, procedures to increase positive affect have generally focused on resource development and installation procedures intended to increase access to positive affect-related memories and images. A neglected clinical issue is the inability of survivors of early neglect to tolerate and integrate actual positive interpersonal experience into positive emotional states, interpersonal scripts, or self-concepts. These deficiencies, characteristic of those with dismissing insecure attachment, help produce and maintain profound psychological, medical, and social problems that limit the ability of patients with these histories from progressing in psychotherapy. This article explores research supporting the potential benefits of an EMDR-related procedure, the positive affect tolerance (PAT) and integration protocol, along with possible mechanisms by which the PAT protocol in general, and its bilateral stimulation procedures, might produce clinical benefits for survivors of early neglect. Case vignettes illustrate the potential challenges of implementing and the potential impact of the PAT protocol. Research designs and assessment tools are described that could clarify the potential benefits of the PAT protocol compared to other treatments designed to increase positive affect.
Social support offers protection from depression and anxiety, possibly through its beneficial effects upon cognitive reappraisal. The present study evaluates potential mechanisms of social support, utilizing a reappraisal task in 121 undergraduates elevated on neuroticism. Participants were instructed to reinterpret stressful images with (Social Condition) and without (Solo Condition) the reminder of a social support figure. Aversiveness, negative affect, and positive affect ratings, as well as written reappraisal responses, were collected trial-by-trial. Results indicated that participants reported lower aversiveness and negative affect and higher positive affect when reinterpreting images in the Social Condition compared to the Solo Condition. Analyses of adherence ratings of written reappraisals revealed that participants generated reinterpretations more in the Social Condition than in the Solo Condition. Exploratory mediation analyses indicated that Condition was indirectly associated with reappraisal efficacy as measured by aversiveness and affect ratings through reappraisal adherence. Results suggest that cognitive reappraisal with the influence of social support may be more effective than cognitive reappraisal without such social influence, and thus may be a suitable target for interventions for depression and anxiety.
Individuals high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to view uncertainty as unbearable and stressful. Notably, IU is transdiagnostic, and high levels of IU are observed across many different emotional disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression). Research has primarily focused on how IU evokes and modulates emotional states such as fear and anxiety. However, recent research suggests that IU may have relevance for a broader range of emotional states. Here, an online survey was conducted to examine whether IU evokes and modulates a range of negative (e.g., fear/anxiety, sadness/upset, anger/frustration, disgust) and positive (e.g., happiness/joy, excitement/enthusiasm, surprise/interest) emotional states. Findings within a community sample (n = 231) revealed that individuals with higher levels of IU report: (1) that uncertainty in general and uncertainty under ambiguity are more likely to evoke negative emotional states and less likely to evoke positive emotional states, (2) that uncertainty under risk is less likely to evoke positive emotional states, and (3) that uncertainty heightens existing negative emotional states and dampens existing positive emotional states. Importantly, these IU-related findings remained when controlling for current experiences of general distress, anxious arousal, and anhedonic depression. Taken together, these findings suggest that IU is involved in evoking and modulating a wide array of emotional phenomena, which likely has relevance for transdiagnostic models and treatment plans for emotional disorders.
Background and objectives:
Reinforcement learning biases have been empirically linked to anhedonia in depression and theoretically linked to social anhedonia in social anxiety disorder, but little work has directly assessed how socially anxious individuals learn from social reward and punishment.
Methods:
N = 157 individuals high and low in social anxiety symptoms completed a social probabilistic selection task that involved selecting between pairs of neutral faces with varying probabilities of changing to a happy or angry face. Computational modeling was performed to estimate learning rates. Accuracy in choosing the more rewarding face was also analyzed.
Results:
No significant group differences were found for learning rates. Contrary to hypotheses, participants high in social anxiety showed impaired punishment learning accuracy; they were more accurate at choosing the most rewarding face than they were at avoiding the most punishing face, and their punishment learning accuracy was lower than that of participants low in social anxiety. Secondary analyses found that high (vs. low) social anxiety participants were less accurate at selecting the more rewarding face on more (vs. less) punishing face pairs.
Limitations:
Stimuli were static, White, facial images, which lack important social cues (e.g., movement, sound) and diversity, and participants were largely non-Hispanic, White undergraduates, whose social reinforcement learning may differ from individuals at different developmental stages and those holding more marginalized identities.
Conclusions:
Socially anxious individuals may be less accurate at learning to avoid social punishment, which may maintain negative beliefs through an interpersonal stress generation process.
Public speaking anxiety (PSA) is defined as a strong distress when performing a speech in front of an audience, causing impairment in terms of work possibilities and social relationships. Audience behavior and feedback received during a speech are a crucial variable to induce PSA, affecting performance and perception. In this study, two different virtual reality public speaking scenarios were developed to investigate the impact of positive (more assertive) versus negative (more hostile) audience behavior regarding perceived anxiety and physiological arousal during performance. Moreover, the presence of any carry-over effect based on first experiences (positive vs. negative) was investigated by using a within-between design. Both explicit (questionnaires) and implicit physiological measures (heart rate [HR]) were used to assess participants' experience. The results confirmed the influence of audience behavior on perceived anxiety. As expected, negative audience elicited greater anxiety and lower experience pleasantness. More interesting, the first experience influenced the perceived anxiety and arousal during performance, suggesting some sort of priming effect due to the valence of previous experience. In particular, starting with an encouraging feedback scenario did not increase the perceived anxiety and HR in front of a subsequent annoying audience. This modulation did not appear in the group who started with the annoying audience, which clearly reported higher HR and anxiety during the annoying exposure compared with the encouraging audience. These results are discussed considering previous evidence on the effect of feedback on performance. In addition, physiological results are interpreted considering the role of somatic marker theory in human performance.
Job stress is pervasive in today's workforce and has negative implications for employees' mental and physical well-being and job performance. Recovery activities outside of work can reduce strain and improve work outcomes; however, little is known about pleasurable intimate recovery experiences and their influence on work outcomes, even though these experiences are important parts of most people's lives outside of work. The present study examined sexual activity that is shared either with a relationship partner or oneself (masturbation) and how pleasure specifically predicts well-being and work outcomes to induce recovery. Results suggest that pleasurable sexual activity, with a partner or alone, is related to perceived recovery from work stress, job satisfaction, work engagement, and life satisfaction. Moreover, perceived recovery from work mediated the relationship between pleasurable sex and work outcomes. Gender moderated this relationship such that pleasurable sex was a stronger predictor of recovery for women (compared to men) in the context of sex within committed relationship partners (but not masturbation). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
People with social phobia report anticipatory and retrospective judgments about social situations that appear consistent with a negative interpretative bias. However, it is not at all clear that biased interpretative inferences are made “on-line;” that is, at the time that ambiguous information is first encountered. In a previous study, volunteers who were anxious about interviews were found to lack the positive on-line inferential bias that was characteristic of nonanxious controls but also failed to show a bias favoring threatening inferences (C. R. Hirsch & A. Mathews, 1997). This finding was confirmed in the present study, in which social phobic patients showed no evidence of making on-line emotional inferences, in contrast with socially nonanxious controls who were again clearly biased in favor of positive inferences. The authors concluded that nonanxious individuals are characterized by a benign on-line inferential bias, but that this is impaired in people with social phobia.
Evaluative processes refer to the operations by which organisms discriminate threatening from nurturant environments. Low activation of positive and negative evaluative processes by a stimulus reflects neutrality, whereas high activation of such processes reflects maximal conflict. Attitudes, an important class of manifestations of evaluative processes, have traditionally been conceptualized as falling along a bipolar dimension, and the positive and negative evaluative processes underlying attitudes have been conceptualized as being reciprocally activated, making the bipolar rating scale the measure of choice. Research is reviewed suggesting that this bipolar dimension is insufficient to portray comprehensively positive and negative evaluative processes and that the question is not whether such processes are reciprocally activated but under what conditions they are reciprocally, nonreciprocally, or independently activated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Using outpatients with anxiety and mood disorders (N = 350), the authors tested several models of the structural relationships of dimensions of key features of selected emotional disorders and dimensions of the tripartite model of anxiety and depression. Results supported the discriminant validity of the 5 symptom domains examined (mood disorders; generalized anxiety disorder, GAD; panic disorder; obsessive-compulsive disorder; social phobia). Of various structural models evaluated, the best fitting involved a structure consistent with the tripartite model (e.g., the higher order factors, negative affect and positive affect, influenced emotional disorder factors in the expected manner). The latent factor, GAD, influenced the latent factor, autonomic arousal, in a direction consistent with recent laboratory findings (autonomic suppression); Findings are discussed in the context of the growing literature on higher order trait dimensions (e.g., negative affect) that may be of considerable importance to the understanding of the pathogenesis, course, and co-occurrence of emotional disorders.
The present study examines the attentional bias hypothesis for individuals with generalised social phobia (GSPs). Socially phobic individuals were hypothesised to exhibit attentional bias towards threat stimuli relevant to interpersonal situations. This hypothesis was tested using the face-in-the-crowd paradigm. GSPs and nonanxious controls (NACs) detected an angry, happy, neutral, or disgust target face in a crowd of 12 distracter photographs. Results indicated that, compared to NACs, GSPs exhibited greater attentional biases for angry than for happy faces in a neutral crowd. GSPs were more slowed down in their performance by happy and angry versus neutral distracters; NACs did not exhibit such sensitivity to distracter type. Finally, GSPs were faster in detecting anger than disgust expressions; NACs detected both types of faces equally quickly. Implications of these findings for the maintenance of social phobia are discussed.
Recognizing emotional expressions is central to understanding the feelings and intentions of other people. Little is known about how social anxiety affects the recognition of emotional expressions. Recent research finds a recognition advantage for happy expressions over negative expressions. In two experiments, social anxiety moderated the recognition advantage of happy faces. People low and high in social anxiety recognized sad faces (Experiment 1) and angry faces (Experiment 2) equally quickly, but people high in social anxiety took longer to recognize happy faces. Both groups showed a significant recognition advantage for happy faces, although the advantage was at least twice as large in the low social-anxiety group. The discussion focuses on mechanisms connecting social anxiety to face processing and on the role of expression recognition in other emotional-processing biases.
Examined the factor structure, internal reliabilities, and concurrent validity of a revised form of the Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC-R) with fourth through sixth graders (N = 587). Factor analysis on a subsample (n = 459) yielded three factors: Fear of Negative Evaluation From Peers, Social Avoidance and Distress Specific to New Situations, and Generalized Social Avoidance and Distress. Confirmatory factor analysis with another subsample (n = 128)revealed a good fit for the three-factor model of social anxiety. In addition, high-socially-anxious children perceived their social acceptance and global self-worth to be low. Neglected and rejected children reported more social anxiety than accepted classmates. The data support the reliability and validity of the SASC-R.
• A systematic method for clinical description and classification of both normal and abnormal personality variants is proposed based on a general biosocial theory of personality. Three dimensions of personality are defined in terms of the basic stimulus-response characteristics of novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence. The possible underlying genetic and neuroanatomical bases of observed variation in these dimensions are reviewed and considered in relation to adaptive responses to environmental challenge. The functional interaction of these dimensions leads to integrated patterns of differential response to novelty, punishment, and reward. The possible tridimensional combinations of extreme (high or low) variants on these basic stimulusresponse characteristics correspond closely to traditional descriptions of personality disorders. This reconciles dimensional and categorical approaches to personality description. It also implies that the underlying structure of normal adaptive traits is the same as that of maladaptive personality traits, except for schizotypal and paranoid disorders.
In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The Concept of CuriosityA Framework for Factors that Support CuriosityElaborating the Framework for Curiosity Supportive FactorsCuriosity InterventionsConclusion
A recent comparison of typical extreme-groups designs and observational designs (G. H. McClelland and C. M. Judd, see record
1994-00225-001) showed that extreme-groups designs have greater power to detect interactions than do observational designs and that extreme-groups designs provide estimates of unstandardized parameter values that have smaller standard errors than do estimates provided by observational designs. In this study, this discussion is taken a step further by investigation of the advantages and disadvantages associated with inferences drawn from extreme-groups and observational designs for the estimation of standardized effects. Observational designs, through accurate estimation of predictor variances, are concluded to be superior for the purposes of standardized parameter estimation. Finally, various ways of adapting extreme-groups designs to better justify inferences concerning population distributions are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Syndromal classification is a well-developed diagnostic system but has failed to deliver on its promise of the identification of functional pathological processes. Functional analysis is tightly connected to treatment but has failed to develop testable, replicable classification systems. Functional diagnostic dimensions are suggested as a way to develop the functional classification approach, and experiential avoidance is described as 1 such dimension. A wide range of research is reviewed showing that many forms of psychopathology can be conceptualized as unhealthy efforts to escape and avoid emotions, thoughts, memories, and other private experiences. It is argued that experiential avoidance, as a functional diagnostic dimension, has the potential to integrate the efforts and findings of researchers from a wide variety of theoretical paradigms, research interests, and clinical domains and to lead to testable new approaches to the analysis and treatment of behavioral disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The development, reliability, and validity of a new instrument, the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), is described. The results indicate that the SPAI-C has high test–retest reliability and internal consistency. In addition, an assessment of concurrent and external validity indicates statistically significant correlations with commonly used self-report measures of general anxiety and fears and parental reports of children's anxiety and social competence. The results of a factor analysis indicate that the scale consists of three factors: Assertiveness/General Conversation, Traditional Social Encounters, and Public Performance. Finally, scores on the SPAI-C successfully differentiate socially anxious and non-socially-anxious children. The instrument appears to be a reliable and valid measure for childhood social anxiety and fear and may prove useful for improving clinical assessment and documenting treatment outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Describes the development of a scale to assess individual differences in self-consciousness. Construction of the scale involved testing the 38 initial items with 130 female and 82 male undergraduates. A principal components factor analysis of the data yielded 3 factors accounting for 43% of the variance: Private Self-Consciousness, Public Self-Consciousness, and Social Anxiety. The final version of the scale, which contained 23 items, was administered to several groups of undergraduates (N = 668) to obtain norms, test-retest (2 wks), subscale correlation, and reliability data. Test-retest reliabilities were .84 for the Public Self-Consciousness scale, .79 for the Private Self-Consciousness scale, .73 for the Social Anxiety scale, and .80 for the total score. Public Self-Consciousness correlated moderately with both Private Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety, while the correlation of Private Self-Consciousness with Social Anxiety fluctuated around zero. No sex differences in scores were observed. Implications for research and therapy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Discusses the paradoxical discrepancy involved in the statistical calculation of the percentage of variation in batting performance that is attributable to skill differentials among major-league baseball players, which is discrepant with intuitions about the influence of skill in batting performance. This discrepancy is discussed in terms of habits of thought about variance explanation. It is argued that percentage variance explanation is a misleading index of the influence of systematic factors in cases where there are processes by which influences cumulate to produce meaningful outcomes. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
An illusory correlation paradigm was used to compare high and low socially anxious individuals’ initial, on-line and a posteriori covariation estimates between emotional faces and aversive, pleasant and neutral outcomes. Overall, participants demonstrated an initial expectancy bias for aversive outcomes following angry faces, and pleasant outcomes following happy faces. On-line expectancy biases indicated that initial biases were extinguished during the task, with the exception of low socially anxious individuals who continued to over-associate positive social cues with pleasant outcomes. In addition to lacking this protective positive on-line bias, the high social anxiety group reported retrospectively more negative social cues than the low socially anxious group. Findings are discussed in relation to similar evidence from recent interpretive and memory paradigms.
A new interview schedule allows lay interviewers or clinicians to make psychiatric diagnoses according to DSM-III criteria, Feighner criteria, and Research Diagnostic Criteria. It is being used in a set of epidemiological studies sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Epidemiological Studies. Its accuracy has been evaluated in a test-retest design comparing independent administrations by psychiatrists and lay interviewers to 216 subjects (inpatients, outpatients, ex-patients, and nonpatients).
Exploring personality through test construction: Development of the multidimensional personality questionnaire Construction of a self-report personality inventory can be a straightforward undertaking. We may take a ‘rational’ or ‘deductive’ approach (Burisch, 1984) and begin by formulating a construct from which to ‘deduce’ basic descriptors — in our case a set of construct-based self-report items. We might even draw on already developed constructs and start writing items immediately; Murray's (1938) carefully elaborated motivational trait constructs have served that function several times. Once enough items have been generated, scale construction, if purely deductive, is complete. A deductive orientation does not rule out the use of data to improve one's initial scales. Data-based deletion or addition of items can increase the internal consistency of a deductive scale. If our objective is to create a multi-scale inventory, we can also empirically enhance scale distinctiveness and independence. But even if deductive scale construction includes extensive ...
The 1956 adaptation for children of Taylor's Manifest Anxiety Scale, the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, was revised to meet current psychometric standards. A 73-item revision draft was administered to 329 school children from grades 1 to 12. Based on item-analysis criteria for rbis greater than or equal to .4 and .30 less than or equal to p less than or equal to .70, 28 anxiety items were retained along with 9 of the original 11 Lie scale items. A cross-validation sample of 167 children from grades 2, 5, 9, 10, and 11 produced a KR20 reliability estimate of .85. Anxiety scores did not differ across grade or race. Females scored significantly higher than males. For the Lie scale, significant differences appeared by grade and race. No sex differences were obtained on the Lie scale. The resulting scale appears useful for children in grades 1 to 12 and may aid in future studies of anxiety as well as assisting the clinician in the understanding of individual children.
Socially anxious people often report high negative affect (NA) and low positive affect (PA). This mood state may be associated with elevated or undesired social evaluation, such as interactions with unfamiliar people or poor quality communication. In this study, high and low anxious undergraduates completed structured diaries assessing interaction partner familiarity, quality of communication, PA, and NA after conversations in their natural environment. Results supported hypotheses of higher NA and lower quality of communication in the anxious group. In addition, quality of communication and familiarity were differently related to NA in the high versus low anxious groups. Results suggest that social-interaction parameters affect high anxious individuals' mood. Implications of the current social interaction based results are contrasted with time-interval diary research.
In this theoretical paper, it is argued that social anxiety arises from the activation of an evolved mechanism for dealing with intra-species (conspecific) threat, a mechanism which has played a vital role in the evolution of social groups. A model is developed showing how this “agonic” mode of defense, working through the psychological systems of appraisal and coping, leads the socially anxious to perceive others as hostile dominants, to fear negative evaluation from them and to respond, at one level of the disorder, by appeasement and submissive behavior, and at a more severe level of the disorder, by more primitive actions such as escape or avoidance. A further theme put forward is that the socially anxious person appears unable to recruit another evolved mechanism for social relating called the “hedonic” mode, in which social groups are structured in terms of cooperation, equality, and mutual support. Some therapeutic implications of these concepts are explored.
This book provides an updated theory of the nature of anxiety and the brain systems controlling anxiety, combined with a theory of hippocampal function, which was first proposed thirty years ago. While remaining controversial, the core of this theory, of a 'Behavioural Inhibition System', has stood the test of time, with its main predictions repeatedly confirmed. Novel anti-anxiety drugs share none of the side effects or primary pharmacological actions of the classical anti-anxiety drugs on the actions of which the theory was based; but they have both the behavioural and hippocampal actions predicted by the theory. This text is the second edition of the book and it departs significantly from the first. It provides, for the first time, a single construct - goal conflict - that underlies all the known inputs to the system; and it includes current data on the amygdala. Its reviews include the ethology of defence, learning theory, the psychopharmacology of anti-anxiety drugs, anxiety disorders, and the clinical and laboratory analysis of amnesia. The cognitive and behavioural functions in anxiety of the septo-hippocampal system and the amygdala are also analysed, as are their separate roles in memory and fear. Their functions are related to a hierarchy of additional structures - from the prefrontal cortex to the periaqueductal gray - that control the various forms of defensive behaviour and to detailed analysis of the monoamine systems that modulate this control. The resultant neurology is linked to the typology, symptoms, pre-disposing personality and therapy of anxiety and phobic disorders, and to the symptoms of amnesia. © Jeffrey A. Gray and Neil McNaughton 2000 , 2003. All rights reserved.
A flood of new studies explores people's subjective well-being (SWB) Frequent positive affect, infrequent negative affect, and a global sense of satisfaction with life define high SWB These studies reveal that happiness and life satisfaction are similarly available to the young and the old, women and men, blacks and whites, the rich and the working-class Better clues to well-being come from knowing about a person's traits, close relationships, work experiences, culture, and religiosity We present the elements of an appraisal-based theory of happiness that recognizes the importance of adaptation, cultural world-view, and personal goals
This article outlines some basic ideas of an evolutionary approach to psychopathology. It focuses on human competition to be seen as attractive in order to elicit the investment of resources from others (e.g., approval, support, and care). It is argued that social anxiety may be a form of competitive anxiety, triggered in contexts where individuals see themselves as relatively low in the status hierarchy of desirable attributes and/or at risk of losing status (and control over social resources such as approval, help, and support) by being seen as having undesirable attributes. To improve (or defend) their position and garner the investments of others (e.g., win approval, support, friendships or status, or defend their status) requires a competitive venture; however, in attempting to compete, social phobics automatically recruit various evolved modules and mentalities for behaving in competitive arenas when one is low in the hierarchy (e.g., social comparison, placating dominant others and various submissive defenses such as concealment, high self-monitoring, and eye-gaze avoidance). These previously adaptive subordinate defenses interfere with status acquisition based on demonstrating attractive attributes to others.
In two experiments, the authors examined memory for facial emotional expressions in patients with generalized social phobia (GSP) and in nonanxious control (NAC) participants. Three main questions were addressed. First, do patients with GSP differ from NAC participants in their overall memory for facial expressions? Second, do patients with GSP exhibit a memory bias for negative versus nonnegative expressions? Third, if such a bias exists, is it specific to angry expressions? The results of both experiments indicated that patients with GSP have better memory for all facial expressions than do NAC participants. Results of experiment 2 suggest that patients with GSP exhibit enhanced recognition for negative compared with nonnegative expressions; in contrast, NAC participants did not exhibit such enhancement. Results concerning specificity were equivocal. The importance of examining cognitive biases in patients with GSP via the use of facial expression is discussed.
Objective:
This study compared dopamine D(2) receptor binding potential in patients with social phobia and healthy comparison subjects.
Method:
Dopamine D(2) receptor binding potential was assessed in 10 unmedicated subjects with generalized social phobia and no significant lifetime psychiatric comorbidity and 10 healthy comparison subjects matched for age and sex. Binding potential was measured in the striatum by using single photon emission computerized tomography and constant infusion of the D(2) receptor radiotracer [(123)I]iodobenzamide ([(123)I]IBZM).
Results:
Mean D(2) receptor binding potential was significantly lower in the subjects with social phobia than in the comparison subjects. Within the social phobia group, there was a nonsignificant correlation of binding potential with the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale score.
Conclusions:
Generalized social phobia may be associated with low binding of [(123)I]IBZM to D(2) receptors in the striatum.
The CES-D scale is a short self-report scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population. The items of the scale are symptoms associated with depression which have been used in previously validated longer scales. The new scale was tested in household interview surveys and in psychiatric settings. It was found to have very high internal consistency and adequate test- retest repeatability. Validity was established by pat terns of correlations with other self-report measures, by correlations with clinical ratings of depression, and by relationships with other variables which support its construct validity. Reliability, validity, and factor structure were similar across a wide variety of demographic characteristics in the general population samples tested. The scale should be a useful tool for epidemiologic studies of de pression.
The development and validation of the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) two companion measures for assessing social phobia fears is described. The SPS assesses fears of being scrutinised during routine activities (eating, drinking, writing, etc.), while the SIAS assesses fears of more general social interaction, the scales corresponding to the DSM-III-R descriptions of Social Phobia—Circumscribed and Generalised types, respectively. Both scales were shown to possess high levels of internal consistency and test–retest reliability. They discriminated between social phobia, agoraphobia and simple phobia samples, and between social phobia and normal samples. The scales correlated well with established measures of social anxiety, but were found to have low or non-significant (partial) correlations with established measures of depression, state and trait anxiety, locus of control, and social desirability. The scales were found to change with treatment and to remain stable in the face of no-treatment. It appears that these scales are valid, useful, and easily scored measures for clinical and research applications, and that they represent an improvement over existing measures of social phobia.
The hedonic principle that people approach pleasure and avoid pain has been the basic motivational principle throughout the history of psychology. This principle underlies motivational models across all levels of analysis in psychology from the biological to social. However, it is noted that the hedonic principle is very basic and is limited as an explanatory variable. Almost any area of motivation can be discussed in terms of the hedonic principle. This chapter describes two different ways in which the hedonic principle operates—namely, one with a promotion focus and other with a prevention focus. These different ways of regulating pleasure and pain, called “regulatory focus,” have a major impact on people's feelings, thoughts, and actions that is independent of the hedonic principle per se. The chapter also presents some background information about another regulatory variable, called the “regulatory reference.” A self-regulatory system with a positive reference value essentially has a desired end state as the reference point.
In the last twenty years "data of social psychology have been meager and personality studies have been mostly restricted to clinical observations." A theory is needed to facilitate development in these areas. Properties of a theory for personality and social behavior include (1) actions, i.e., "the basic events to which behavior theory has reference"; (2) dynamics, i.e., "changes in behavior in (a) performance (b) acquisition and (c) potentialities for action." If personality and social behavior are to be included in a single theory, the basic monadic unit of behavior must be expendable into a diadic one. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)