Social Anxiety and the Direction of Attentional Focus

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议的研究计划旨在 调查社交焦虑和注意集中对积极情绪的影响 情感(PA)、好奇心、人际关系密切和消极情感(NA)通过 实验设计和治疗结果研究。社交焦虑(SA) 个人倾向于全神贯注于消极的想法，包括 对被拒绝的期望，潜在地干扰 他们在社交互动中注意力集中和反应迅速的能力。 在社交互动中，倾听和回应是 导致互惠的自我表露和亲密的重要因素。 过度的自我关注可能会阻碍注意力的分配 向外，对其他人，潜在地损害质量和享受 社交互动。初步的实验研究将检验这些假设。 也就是说：(1)自我集中的注意力会放大高SA之间的关系 和低水平的PA，好奇心，糟糕的社交表现，和高NA在 社会互动，(2)自我集中注意力会放大差异 在高SA组和低SA组之间的情感、自我表露和 由同盟者和独立评分者衡量的社交技能，(3) 在互动之后和第二天，高SA个体将 表现出更强的反思性事后认知加工和回忆能力 相对于低SA个体而言，偏向于负面刺激。为了测试这些 假设，这是一项产生人际亲密关系的实验任务，之前 在试点研究中得到验证，将被采用。高SA和低SA的学生将 与接受过标准化脚本角色培训的同性同盟者互动。全 参与者将同时参加自我聚焦和外部聚焦实验 操纵。在自我聚焦状态下，参与者将回答问题 当摄像机对准他们时。在外部聚焦条件下， 参与者将对着摄像机对着邦联提出问题。一个 二次研究计划测试潜在的调节作用 自我关注过程中的症状减轻和情感作用 对抑郁症进行认知行为团体治疗。比较将是 在患有抑郁症的个体与患有抑郁症和社交障碍的人之间做出的 焦虑症。这项研究的首要目标是确定 注意焦点对情绪、动机和情绪的潜在贡献作用 SA患者的人际行为。更好地理解这些 机制可能最终导致治疗模块的开发 旨在将注意力从自我导向重新训练到更好的平衡 积极认同自我和其他取向。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research plan seeks to investigate the effects of social anxiety and attentional focus on positive affect (PA), curiosity, interpersonal closeness, and negative affect (NA) via experimental designs and treatment outcome studies. Socially anxious (SA) individuals tend to be preoccupied with negative thoughts, including expectations of being rejected, potentially interfering with their ability to be attentive and responsive during social interactions. In social interactions, listening and responding are important ingredients that lead to reciprocal self-disclosure and intimacy. Excessive self-focused attention may prevent attention from being allocated outward, toward other people, potentially impairing the quality and enjoyment of social interactions. The primary experimental study will test the hypotheses that: (1) self-focused attention will amplify the relationship between high-SA and low levels of PA, curiosity, poor social performance, and high NA during social interactions, (2) self-focused attention will amplify differences between high and low-SA groups for ratings of affect, self-disclosure, and social skills as measured by confederates and independent raters, (3) immediately following and the day after interactions, high-SA individuals will demonstrate greater ruminative post-event cognitive processing and recall biases to negative stimuli relative to low-SA individuals. To test these hypotheses, an interpersonal closeness-generating experimental task, previously validated in a pilot study, will be employed. High and low-SA students will interact with same-sex confederates trained in standardized scripted roles. All participants will take part in both a self and external-focus experimental manipulation. In the self-focus condition, participants will answer questions while a camera is directed at them. In the external-focus condition, participants will ask questions with the camera focused on the confederate. A secondary study is planned to test the potential moderating role of self-focused attention on symptom reduction and affectivity during the course of a cognitive-behavioral group treatment for depression. Comparisons will be made between individuals with depression vs. comorbid depression and social anxiety disorder. The overarching goal of this research is to identify the potential contributing role of attentional focus to the affect, motivation, and interpersonal behavior of SA individuals. A better understanding of these mechanisms could ultimately lead to the development of treatment modules designed to re-train attention from a self-orientation to a better balance of positively-valenced self and other orientation.