Social anxiety and the interpretation of positive social events

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.05.007

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Volume 22, Issue 4, May 2008, Pages 577-590

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.05.007 Get rights and content

Abstract

We report four independent studies that examined the relationship between social interaction anxiety and the tendency to interpret positive social events in a threat-maintaining manner. Study 1 described the development of a scale that measures negative interpretations of positive social events, the interpretation of positive events scale (IPES). Study 2 cross-validated the structure of the IPES and established that social interaction anxiety explained significant variance in negative interpretations of positive social events beyond negative affect in general. Study 3 demonstrated that negative interpretation of positive events was significantly greater in a clinical sample of patients with generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD) than a matched group of non-anxious community controls. In addition, within the GSAD group, the IPES was associated with negative social predictions following a positive interaction. Finally, study 4 confirmed that negative interpretations of positive social events mediated the relationship between social interaction anxiety and low positive affect.

Section snippets

Study 1

The first step in determining whether negative interpretations mediate the link between social anxiety and low PA was to develop a reliable and valid measure of the interpretation of positive events, and that was the goal of study 1. We began by asking people with GSAD to reflect on their reactions to positive social events. Their reports were converted to questionnaire items that were used to construct scales reflecting the dimensions that underlie those responses. We then examined the

Study 2

In study 2, we sought to cross-validate the factor structure of the IPES items and to continue to explore whether social interaction anxiety explained unique variance in threatening interpretations of positive events. Study 1 indicated that social interaction anxiety was associated with the IPES when variance attributable to depressive symptoms was controlled; however, it did not assess whether this negative interpretative style was a characteristic of anxiety in general. To address this issue,

Study 3

Studies 1 and 2 confirmed the prediction that social anxiety is associated with a tendency to interpret positive social events in a way that maintains a sense of threat. Both studies, however, relied on student samples, and there is a need to determine whether the results would extend to a clinical sample. Accordingly, in study 3, we examined the structural integrity and specificity of the IPES in a convenience sample of people seeking treatment for GSAD.

We were also interested in the effect of

Study 4

We began this research with the observation that social anxiety was associated with low positive affect (Brown et al., 1998, Kashdan, 2002, Kashdan, 2004), and speculated on the factors that might explain this link. In particular, we hypothesized that the association between social anxiety and low positive affect may be due in part to the tendency to interpret positive events in a manner than maintains rather than reduces a sense of threat (see Gilboa-Schechtman et al., 2000; Hirsch & Mathews,

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Threat-related attentional bias is thought to have a causal influence on the etiology of social anxiety. However, there is uncertainty on whether attention dwells on or diverts away from threats, and the measurements typically utilized to explore attentional bias cannot continuously quantify changes in attention. Here, we used steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) as a continuous neurophysiological measure of visual attentional processing to examine the time course of attentional bias in social anxiety. Participants with high (n = 18) and low (n = 18) social anxiety passively viewed two faces flickering at 15 and 20 Hz frequency to evoke ssVEPs, and completed Attentional Control Scale. The results showed that angry faces, as compared to happy and neutral faces, elicited larger ssVEP amplitudes for the time window of 180–500 ms after facial stimuli onset only in the high socially anxious individuals, and the effect extended to the next two periods of 500–1000 ms and 1000–1500 ms. The ssVEP amplitudes differed most when individuals with high social anxiety viewed angry-neutral expression combinations. Additionally, attentional control was negatively correlated with social anxiety and threat-related attentional bias. The results suggested that individuals with social anxiety initially oriented attention toward the threat and subsequently exhibited difficulty in disengaging attention from it, possibly due to impaired attentional control.
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Stress is viewed as the leading cause of mental health issues. Positive events, however, could act as a buffer against stress. Since the stress-buffering effects of positive events in previous studies were mainly examined by subjective self-reporting, continuous tracking research at individual behavioral levels still remains to be explored. In this study, we collected microblogs ( $n =$ 27,346) from a group of high school students ( $n = 500$ ) to examine the relationship between positive events and stress-buffering patterns at both the content and behavioral levels. Through a pilot study of scheduled exams, we found that students taking exams with neighboring positive events appeared to exhibit less intense stress and more stable stress fluctuations. Most students talked less about exams when positive events occurred nearby. Hypothetical tests for stress-buffering effects of positive events and monotonic changes in the stress intensity under the impact of positive events were further conducted based on automatically extracted positive events ( $n =$ 1,914) from the microblogs. The results showed that the stress-buffering effects of positive events were closely correlated with adolescents’ stress-change modes, microblog linguistic expressions, and posting behaviors. The study also showed that positive events buffered monotonic changes in stress intensity caused by stressor events. Based on these theoretical findings, the stress-buffering patterns around positive events were further incorporated for stress prediction in adolescents. This study could inform the use of social networks to estimate and track mental health transition in adolescents under stress. The theoretical and practical implications, limitations of this study and future work are discussed.
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Citation Excerpt :
However, we specifically looked at a relatively general pool of participants: the 15% of the sample reporting highest levels of daily anxious feelings. It is likely that a more specific analysis of individuals with more anxiety-related mental illness (e.g., social anxiety disorder) may have different patterns of response and cultural engagement behaviours (Alden et al., 2008). Overall, this study has some significant strengths.
Rationale. There is a growing literature on the benefits of arts and cultural engagement for mental health. However, whether poor mental health is a barrier to engaging in cultural activities remains unclear. Objective. To identify whether there are differential participation rates in community cultural activities amongst those with differing levels of mental health (specifically, feelings of anxiety and happiness) and identify potential explanatory factors. Method. We analysed data from 7241 participants in the Taking Part survey; a random face-to-face household survey conducted in England (2016–2017). Cultural engagement was measured using a four-factor variable of cultural participation derived from assessing annual attendance at 21 receptive cultural activities. Mental health was measured using two of the Office for National Statistics measures of subjective wellbeing: happiness and anxious feelings. Analyses were adjusted for demographic, socio-economic, geographic and behavioural factors. Results. There was no difference in participation amongst individuals experiencing high levels of anxious feelings, but individuals experiencing low levels of happiness were less likely to engage in ‘popular’ cultural activities (e.g., live music events/cinema), ‘high art’ cultural activities (e.g., opera/ballet), and crafts and literary cultural events (e.g., exhibitions/book fairs). Education and socio-economic status largely explained differences, but for ‘high art’ and ‘popular’ activities, differences persisted independent of all explanatory factors tested. There was no difference in participation in global cultural activities (e.g., festivals). Conclusions. Using behaviour change theory, our findings suggest that lower levels of physical and social opportunity and psychological capability may reduce levels of cultural participation amongst individuals with low levels of happiness, but other physical and perceived barriers still remain to be explored.

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Social anxiety and the interpretation of positive social events

Abstract

Section snippets

Study 1

Study 2

Study 3

Study 4

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Journal of Research in Personality

Behavior Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Clinical Psychology Review

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Social phobia and social appraisal in successful and unsuccessful interactions

Behaviour Research and Therapy

The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Beck depression inventory-II

Structural relationships among dimensions of DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders and dimensions of negative affect, positive affect, and autonomic arousal

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Anxiety disorders interview schedule for DSM-IV

Validation of the social interaction anxiety scale and the social phobia scale across anxiety disorders

Psychological Assessment

Relations of tripartite dimensions of emotions to childhood anxiety and mood disorders

Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

A cognitive perspective on social phobia