Social cognition in social anxiety: first evidence for increased empathic abilities.
Social cognition in social anxiety: first evidence for increased empathic abilities.
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发表时间：
2011
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通讯作者：
Yasmin Tibi-Elhanany;S. Shamay-Tsoory
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作者：
Yasmin Tibi-Elhanany;S. Shamay-Tsoory
研究背景社交恐惧症患者表现出对他人心理状态的敏感和注意。尽管人们对SP的认知过程进行了广泛的研究，但这些个体的社会认知特征却从未被研究过。我们假设，高社交焦虑个体(HSA)可能表现出更高的心理化和同理心能力。方法采用Liebowitz社交焦虑量表对21例HSA患者和22例低社交焦虑(LSA)患者的共情能力进行自评量表评定。一项计算机化的任务被用来评估判断一阶和二阶情感与认知心理状态归因的能力。结果HSA个体表现出较高的情感共情倾向。然而，对一般焦虑变量的控制表明，社交焦虑与认知移情措施有关，而不是情感移情。此外，与LSA参与者相比，HSA参与者在情感心理状态归因条件上表现出更高的准确性水平，但在平行认知心理状态归因条件上的准确性低于LSA个体。限制：需要对更大的样本和临床诊断的个体进行额外的研究。结论高社交焦虑个体可能表现出独特的社会认知能力，具有更高的认知移情倾向和情感心理状态归因的准确性。
BACKGROUND Individuals with social phobia (SP) show sensitivity and attentiveness to other peoples states of mind. Although cognitive processes in SP have been extensively studied, these individuals social cognition characteristics have never been examined before. We hypothesized that high socially anxious individuals (HSA) may exhibit elevated mentalizing and empathic abilities. METHODS Empathy was assessed using self-rating scales in HSA individuals (n=21) and low socially anxious (LSA) individuals (n=22), based on their score on the Liebowitz social anxiety scale. A computerized task was used to assess the ability to judge first and second order affective vs. cognitive mental state attributions. RESULTS HSA individuals exhibited elevated affective empathy tendencies. However, controlling for the general anxiety variable revealed that social anxiety was related to cognitive empathy measures, rather than affective empathy. In addition, compared with LSA participants, HSA participants exhibited higher accuracy levels on the affective mental state attribution conditions, but were less accurate than LSA individuals on the parallel cognitive mental state attribution conditions. LIMITATIONS Additional research with larger samples and clinically diagnosed individuals is required. CONCLUSIONS Results support the hypothesis that high socially anxious individuals may demonstrate a unique social-cognitive abilities profile with elevated cognitive empathy tendencies and high accuracy in affective mental state attributions.