Neuroscience
People with social phobia dread social situations and live in fear of public embarrassment. Their anxiety often permeates all public activities, including eating out, or visiting a public lavatory. Research shows they catastrophise about social situations, what people think about them, and what negative social events say about the kind of person they are. By correcting these biases, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be an effective treatment. However, it's not known whether all of these biases need to be addressed for long term recovery, or if instead the correction of one particular bias is crucial. Judith Wilson and Ronald Rapee (Macquarie University, Sydney) investigated.
Thirty-six people undergoing a 12-week CBT programme for social phobia completed questionnaires before and after their treatment. Their long-term recovery was assessed three months later.
After CBT, the participants were less likely to believe a hypothetical social situation would cause others to think ill of them; were less likely to think it reflected badly on the kind of person they are; and less likely to think it would have long-term negative implications for their relationships and/or career. Of these, only reductions in the participants' belief that negative social events revealed bad things about them, independently predicted reduced social phobia at three months.
Whereas previous research has suggested social phobics are overly concerned by what others think of them, this research highlights the importance of how they view themselves. "It is ultimately the negative inferences they draw with regard to the self that may be important for maintaining the disorder", the authors said.
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Wilson, J.K. & Rapee, R.M. (2005). The interpretation of negative social events in social phobia: changes during treatment and relationship to outcome. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 373-389.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
Social phobia
People with social phobia dread social situations and live in fear of public embarrassment. Their anxiety often permeates all public activities, including eating out, or visiting a public lavatory. Research shows they catastrophise about social situations, what people think about them, and what negative social events say about the kind of person they are. By correcting these biases, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be an effective treatment. However, it's not known whether all of these biases need to be addressed for long term recovery, or if instead the correction of one particular bias is crucial. Judith Wilson and Ronald Rapee (Macquarie University, Sydney) investigated.
Thirty-six people undergoing a 12-week CBT programme for social phobia completed questionnaires before and after their treatment. Their long-term recovery was assessed three months later.
After CBT, the participants were less likely to believe a hypothetical social situation would cause others to think ill of them; were less likely to think it reflected badly on the kind of person they are; and less likely to think it would have long-term negative implications for their relationships and/or career. Of these, only reductions in the participants' belief that negative social events revealed bad things about them, independently predicted reduced social phobia at three months.
Whereas previous research has suggested social phobics are overly concerned by what others think of them, this research highlights the importance of how they view themselves. "It is ultimately the negative inferences they draw with regard to the self that may be important for maintaining the disorder", the authors said.
___________________________________
Wilson, J.K. & Rapee, R.M. (2005). The interpretation of negative social events in social phobia: changes during treatment and relationship to outcome. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 373-389.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Your Anxiety During Public Speaking Is Probably Made Worse By The Audience Members You Look At
We already know from past research that people with social anxiety seem to have a bias towards negative social signals. For instance, they're more likely to notice a frown of disapproval than a smile, which of course only fuels their anxiety. But...
- Are People With Social Anxiety Preoccupied By Social Rank?
People with a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder find social situations nerve wracking, from mixing with friends to speaking in public. A number of explanations have been proposed for why they feel this way, including that they are pre-occupied with...
- Fear Impedes Older Patients' Recovery From Hip Surgery
Falling and breaking a hip can have a devastating effect on older people’s lives. Alongside pain, depression and loss of cognitive functioning, it’s been known for some time that fear of falling is one of several factors that can impede their recovery...
- A Social 'viagra' For Shy People?
The days of finding Dutch courage in a quick drink before a stressful situation could soon be over – researchers have reported that a few sniffs of the hormone oxytocin can dampen the brain’s fear response to threatening images. The finding follows...
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Not only can cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) provide sufferers of schizophrenia with additional benefits above and beyond those gained from taking anti-psychotic medication, but some of these benefits continue to persist two years later. Furthermore,...