Post-event processing in social anxiety

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Abstract

Clark and Wells’ [1995. A cognitive model of social phobia. In: R. Heimberg, M. Liebowitz, D.A. Hope, & F.R. Schneier (Eds.) Social phobia: Diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp. 69–93). New York: Guildford Press.] cognitive model of social phobia proposes that following a social event, individuals with social phobia will engage in post-event processing, during which they conduct a detailed review of the event. This study investigated the relationship between self-appraisals of performance and post-event processing in individuals high and low in social anxiety. Participants appraised their performance immediately after a conversation with an unknown individual and prior to an anticipated second conversation task 1 week later. The frequency and valence of post-event processing during the week following the conversation was also assessed. The study also explored differences in the metacognitive processes of high and low socially anxious participants. The high socially anxious group experienced more anxiety, predicted worse performance, underestimated their actual performance, and engaged in more post-event processing than low socially anxious participants. The degree of negative post-event processing was linked to the extent of social anxiety and negative appraisals of performance, both immediately after the conversation task and 1 week later. Differences were also observed in some metacognitive processes. The results are discussed in relation to current theory and previous research.

Introduction

Social phobia is a common and disabling anxiety disorder (Harvey, Clark, Ehlers, & Rapee, 2000), characterised by an intense concern about evoking negative reactions from others during social interactions (Stravynski, Bond, & Amado, 2004). According to recent theoretical models of social phobia, individuals with social phobia attach fundamental importance to being positively appraised by others, yet experience marked insecurity regarding their ability to convey a favourable impression of themselves to others. As a consequence, individuals with social phobia believe that their social behaviour will have disastrous consequences, such as humiliation or rejection (Clark & Wells, 1995; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997).

The Clark and Wells (1995) model of social phobia identifies four processes that contribute to the maintenance of this anxiety: self-schemata, self-focused attention, in-situation safety behaviours, and anticipatory and post-event processing. This study focuses on one part of the fourth maintaining factor, post-event processing. According to the Clark and Wells model, post-event processing refers to the tendency for individuals with social phobia to engage in a detailed review or ‘post-mortem’ of events following a social interaction. Clark and Wells (1995) argue that the cognitive content and associated affect of post-event processing is guided by the thoughts and feelings that were processed during the event itself. During post-event processing, individuals with social phobia typically become preoccupied with anxious feelings and negative self-perceptions, and ambiguous information is re-interpreted as negative (Stopa & Clark, 2000), leading to greater levels of anxiety and shame (Clark & Wells, 1995). Clark and Wells’ (1995) conceptualisation of post-event processing is therefore similar to Rapee and Heimberg's (1997) suggestion that retrospective rumination generates and maintains social anxiety. According to Rapee and Heimberg (1997), retrospective rumination is characterised by information elicited from external and internal cues during the social event itself, together with the recollection of perceived past failures. Similar to Clark and Wells’ (1995) model, retrospective rumination is hypothesised to perpetuate maladaptive cognitions and lower anticipation for success in future social interactions.

A number of studies provide support for Clark and Wells’ (1995) account of post-event processing in that following a social situation, highly socially anxious individuals engage in significantly more negative post-event processing about their performance compared to individuals low in social anxiety (Edwards, Rapee, & Franklin, 2003; Mellings & Alden, 2000). Research into the characteristics and consequences of post-event processing has shown that following a social situation, the degree of state anxiety experienced during the situation and levels of trait anxiety are strongly correlated with the degree of self-reported post-event rumination (Abbott & Rapee, 2002; Lundh & Sperling, 2002; Rachman, Gruter-Andrew, & Shafran, 2000). Rachman et al. (2000) describe the content of the ruminative thoughts following a social event as recurrent and intrusive, and argue that they interfere with the individual's ability to concentrate, presumably by capturing and maintaining the focus of attention.

The Clark and Wells (1995) model predicts a specific relationship between self-appraisal of performance in social situations and the frequency and valence of subsequent post-event processing. That is, the more negatively one perceives one's performance, the greater the frequency of negative post-event processing. Although empirical research has demonstrated that socially anxious individuals underestimate their performance and overestimate the appearance of negative behaviours relative to individuals with low social anxiety and independent observers (Mellings & Alden, 2000; Rapee & Lim, 1992; Stopa & Clark, 1993), few studies have directly investigated the relationship between subjective appraisals of performance and post-event processing in social anxiety and social phobia. One study that did investigate this relationship asked participants to perform an impromptu speech task (Abbott & Rapee, 2004). Abbott and Rapee (2004) showed that individuals with social phobia engaged in more negative rumination than controls, with the best predictors of post-event rumination being social anxiety symptom severity and self-appraisals of performance. Abbott and Rapee (2004) also demonstrated that individuals with social phobia maintain negative appraisals of performance, contrasting with the non-clinical group who became more positive about their performance over time.

There is limited research into the mechanisms underlying post-event processing. Recent accounts propose that metacognitive beliefs and appraisals may play a role in maintaining recurrent negative thinking (Watkins, 2004; Watkins & Baracaia, 2001). Metacognition refers to the psychological structures, knowledge, events and processes that are involved in the control, modification and interpretation of thinking itself (Wells & Cartwright-Hatton, 2004), and is thought to be an important factor in the development and maintenance of psychological disorder (Wells, 2000). More specifically, individuals have positive and negative beliefs about thinking that influences appraisals. Individuals also have implicit procedural metacognitions that form plans or programmes for guiding cognition and action. Research into rumination in depression has demonstrated that individuals who ruminate often believe that it increases insight into the self in order to improve problem solving and reduce the potential for repeating mistakes in the future (Watkins, 2004; Watkins & Baracaia, 2001). These metacognitive processes may be similarly important in post-event processing. Research by both Rachman et al. (2000) and Field and Morgan (2004) reported that individuals with high social anxiety may find post-event processing helpful, and these results suggest that post-event processing may involve metacognitive beliefs about the need to confront perceived failures in social situations and facilitate reflective problem solving.

The present study is a partial replication and extension of Abbott and Rapee's (2004) study. In contrast to Abbott and Rapee's (2004) use of a speech task, the present study aimed to investigate post-event processing using a ‘getting acquainted’ conversation with an unknown individual. This task was selected because such situations are necessary first steps in forming friendships, and can be problematic for socially anxious individuals (Alden & Wallace, 1995; Stravynski & Shahar, 1983). Similar to Abbott and Rapee (2004), one aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between self-appraisals of performance and post-event processing in social anxiety, and to investigate the effects of time on the frequency and valence of post-event processing. The present study also aimed to build upon the research findings of Abbott and Rapee (2004) by investigating the effect of post-event processing on perceived performance in a future social interaction. Participants high and low in social anxiety were informed that they would be required to partake in two conversation tasks, 1 week apart, with an unknown individual. Participants were subsequently asked to rate their performance and complete the post-event processing questionnaire used in the Abbott and Rapee (2004) study both immediately after the first conversation and again prior to the anticipated second conversation. Further to Abbott and Rapee's (2004) study, participants also completed a daily questionnaire designed to investigate the frequency and valence of post-event processing in the week between the first and the anticipated second conversation.

The final aim of the present study was to explore differences in the metacognitive processes of individuals high and low in social anxiety; a factor that has not yet been investigated in studies of post-event processing. Two dimensions of metacognition were investigated, including (1) beliefs about cognitions that occur during post-event-processing and (2) cognitive self-consciousness (i.e. the tendency to be aware and monitor thinking).

Four hypotheses were tested in the current study, based upon Clark and Wells’ (1995) model and previous research:

  • 1.

    High socially anxious participants would predict worse performance, underestimate actual performance, and overestimate the appearance of negative behaviours compared both to individuals low in social anxiety and to their conversation partner.

  • 2.

    High socially anxious participants would engage in more post-event processing than low socially anxious participants, and the content of this processing would be more negative. High socially anxious participants would also engage in post-event processing for a longer period of time. This hypothesis was derived from Clark and Wells’ (1995) suggestion that post-event processing is perpetuated by anticipatory processing prior to a pending social situation.

  • 3.

    High socially anxious participants would rate their performance more negatively over time. This hypothesis was based upon Clark and Wells’ (1995) suggestion that self-appraisals of performance may worsen for individuals who are highly socially anxious as a result of negative post-event processing and the recall of past perceived failures. It was also hypothesised that there would be a significant correlation between social anxiety, negative appraisals of performance and the frequency of negative post-event processing following the conversation.

  • 4.

    Compared to low socially anxious participants, high socially anxious participants would exhibit higher scores on all dimensions of metacognition regarding social situations. This hypothesis was based upon Morrison and Wells’ (2003) suggestion that metacognitions are associated with psychological disturbance, in that they generate and maintain biases in information processing (Wells & Mathews, 1996).

Section snippets

Participants

High and low socially anxious groups were selected using a measure of fear of negative evaluation. 132 undergraduate students were screened using the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNES: Watson & Friend, 1969). High and low FNE groups were selected using cut offs of 20 or above (High FNE group) or 8 or below (low FNE group), as recommended by Stopa and Clark (2001). 50 participants took part in the study in exchange for either course credit or a small payment: The high FNE group (n=25; 2

Anxiety

Means and standard deviations for anxiety ratings immediately before the conversation, after the conversation and before the anticipated second conversation are shown in Table 1. A 2 (Group)×3 (Time) mixed design ANOVA was used to compare anxiety immediately before the first conversation task, immediately after the first conversation task, and immediately before the second conversation task. There was a main effect of group, F (1, 48)=24.00, p<.001. The high FNE group were more anxious overall

Discussion

The aim of this study was to empirically examine post-event processing in participants who were high and low in social anxiety. Consistent with previous research, the results showed that high socially anxious individuals experienced more anxiety, predicted worse performance, and underestimated their actual performance compared to low socially anxious individuals. More importantly in terms of the main aim of the study, high socially anxious participants engaged in more post-event processing

Conclusion

According to Clark and Wells’ (1995) model of social phobia, post-event processing involves a review of events following a social interaction, whereby the individual focuses on anxious feelings and negative cognitions that focus on the social self. The findings from this experiment are consistent with this proposal. In line with previous research, this study showed that high socially anxious participants experience higher subjective anxiety, predict worse performance, and underestimate actual

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