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Gepubliceerd in: Cognitive Therapy and Research 5/2012

01-10-2012 | Original Article

Social Anxiety and the Interaction of Imagery and Interpretations in Children: An Experimental Test of the Combined Cognitive Biases Hypothesis

Auteurs: Stephanos P. Vassilopoulos, Nicholas J. Moberly, Kandio-Maria Douratsou

Gepubliceerd in: Cognitive Therapy and Research | Uitgave 5/2012

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Abstract

Previous research with adult samples has demonstrated that self-imagery valence influences the emotional interpretations people make about social situations. However, no research has examined the effect of self-imagery valence on interpretations in children. In the present study we examined the causal role of self-imagery valence on interpretations and judgments concerning ambiguous social events. Self-imagery was experimentally induced by asking children to generate and hold in mind a negative or positive self-image while interpretation and judgmental biases were examined using an ambiguous stories task. Our results showed that social anxiety predicts more negative interpretation and judgmental biases in response to hypothetical social events. Additionally, exposing children to negative or positive self-imagery differentially affected their subsequent judgmental biases, although for interpretation biases this was only true for children scoring above the mean on social anxiety. Crucially, self-imagery valence interacted with social anxiety to predict interpretation (but not judgmental) biases. The findings provide early support for the suggestion that cognitive biases interact to maintain childhood social anxiety.
Voetnoten
1
Of the original 172 students who participated in both sessions of the study, eight participants were dropped due to incomplete data and language difficulties, yielding a total of 164 students.
 
2
We also ran a regression analysis to test whether imagery condition interacted with social anxiety to predict the emotional valence of the recalled self-image while controlling for depression scores. This interaction did not significantly predict image valence, β = .16, t (159) = .67, P = .50.
 
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Metagegevens
Titel
Social Anxiety and the Interaction of Imagery and Interpretations in Children: An Experimental Test of the Combined Cognitive Biases Hypothesis
Auteurs
Stephanos P. Vassilopoulos
Nicholas J. Moberly
Kandio-Maria Douratsou
Publicatiedatum
01-10-2012
Uitgeverij
Springer US
Gepubliceerd in
Cognitive Therapy and Research / Uitgave 5/2012
Print ISSN: 0147-5916
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-2819
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-011-9382-y

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