Internal versus external attention in social anxiety: an investigation using a novel paradigm

Several cognitive models propose that social anxiety is associated with increased self-focused attention. Indirect evidence for this hypothesis has been provided by questionnaire studies, and by cognitive psychology paradigms that have demonstrated reduced processing of external information during f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBehaviour research and therapy Vol. 41; no. 5; pp. 555 - 572
Main Authors Mansell, Warren, Clark, David M, Ehlers, Anke
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2003
Elsevier Science
Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Analysis of Variance
Anxiety
Anxiety disorders. Neuroses
Attention
Biological and medical sciences
Cognitive therapy
Cues
Faces
Humans
Medical sciences
Phobia
Phobic Disorders - diagnosis
Psychological Tests
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Selective attention
Self Concept
Self-focus
Social anxiety
Social phobia
Social skills
Speech
Selective attention
Self-focus
Social phobia
Faces
Social anxiety
Human
Anxiety disorder
Self perception
Emotion emotionality
Face
Facial expression
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Summary:Several cognitive models propose that social anxiety is associated with increased self-focused attention. Indirect evidence for this hypothesis has been provided by questionnaire studies, and by cognitive psychology paradigms that have demonstrated reduced processing of external information during feared social-evaluative situations. However, no studies have simultaneously measured on-line attention to internal and external events. A probe detection task that aimed to measure the balance of attention between internal and external stimuli was developed. High and low socially anxious individuals were instructed to detect two probes. The external probe was superimposed on pictures of faces (happy, neutral, angry) or household objects that were presented on a VDU. The ‘internal’ probe was a pulse to the finger which participants were led to believe represented significant changes in their physiology. Compared to low speech anxious individuals, high speech anxious individuals showed an internal attentional bias, that was specific to conditions of social-evaluative threat.
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ISSN:0005-7967
1873-622X
DOI:10.1016/S0005-7967(02)00029-3