The time-course of visual threat processing: High trait anxious individuals eventually avert their gaze from angry faces

Several experiments have shown that anxious individuals have an attentional bias towards threat cues. It is also known, however, that exposure to a subjectively threatening but relatively harmless stimulus tends to lead to a reduction in fear. Accordingly, some authors have hypothesised that high trait anxious individuals have a vigilant-avoidant pattern of visual attention to threatening stimuli. In the present study, 52 high trait anxious and 48 low trait anxious subjects were shown pairs of emotional faces, while their direction of gaze was continuously monitored. For 0-1000 ms, both groups were found to view angry faces more than happy faces. For 2000-3000 ms, however, only high trait anxious subjects averted their gaze from angry faces more than they did from happy faces.     

Emotional responsivity to nonveridical heart rate feedback as a function of anxiety

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the effects of nonveridical heart rate feedback and anxiety on electrodermal responses and verbal reports to emotionally laden stimuli. Forty-eight female subjects were divided into high and low anxious groups on the basis of their Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale scores and resting level electrodermal activity. All subjects viewed 10 autopsy slides while hearing continuous auditory tones supposedly representing their own heartbeats. Twenty-four subjects heard the tones increase in rate with slide onset. The other 24 subjects heard no change in rate with slide onset. The high resting autonomic activity group responded with significantly larger electrodermal responses to the heart rate feedback-slide combination than the low resting level autonomic activity group. The high autonomic activity group also reported that the slides were significantly more unpleasant than the low autonomic activity group, particularly those slides accompanied by an increase in heart rate feedback. Implications of these findings for a cognitive-visceral model of emotion are discussed.     

Electrophysiological measurement during a time-out procedure in stuttering and normal speakers

Eight stuttering and eight normal speaking subjects were given a time-out (TO) procedure during reading. Simultaneous measures of heart rate and galvanic skin response were obtained in order to infer anxiety level during the TO period. Multivariate and univariate analysis of variance procedures indicated that stutterers, when compared to normals, initially relax during a TO period compared to base rate levels. Near the latter part of the TO period stutterers anticipate the onset of speech and become relatively more anxious. This anxiety level increases even more during the actual speech intervals. Normal speakers resent the intrusion of the TO interval and become more anxious during this period.     

The importance of behavioral and cognitive factors in heterosexual-social anxiety1

Subject groups were classified on the basis of behavioral ratings for degree of anxiety exhibited and level of social skill displayed during a simulated dating interaction. Subjects were then asked to view and evaluate their own skill performance and the performance of bogus subjects during the same interaction when presented on videotapes. All subject groups were accurate in rating the performance of the bogus subjects but the high anxious/high skill subjects underestimated (in comparison to judge's ratings) their own skill while high anxious/low skill subjects accurately assessed their poor performance. Implications of the establishment of two types of heterosexual-socially anxious subjects were drawn for both clinical practice and research.     

Self-Consciousness,Self-presentation,and Performance Under Pressure: Who Chokes,and When?

Choking under pressure by persons low and high in self-consciousness was examined as a function of two sources of performance pressure: audience and performance feedback. Subjects competed with an alleged opponent on a psychomotor task while alone, before a supportive (same team) audience, or a nonsupportive (opposing team) audience. Before the critical trial, subjects learned that their team was either somewhat ahead of or somewhat behind the opposing team. Self-consciousness, audience, and feedback interacted to affect performance during the critical trial. When disappointing the audience was likely, subjects low in self-consciousness choked. Subjects high in self-consciousness tended to choke when they were told that their team had fallen behind. It is suggested that persons who are low and high in self-consciousness experience different types of performance pressure due to disparate self-presentational motives.     

Mental Imagery and Post-Event Processing in Anticipation of a Speech Performance Among Socially Anxious Individuals

The present study investigated whether post-event processing (PEP) involving mental imagery about a past speech is particularly detrimental for socially anxious individuals who are currently anticipating giving a speech. One hundred fourteen high and low socially anxious participants were told they would give a 5 min impromptu speech at the end of the experimental session. They were randomly assigned to one of three manipulation conditions: post-event processing about a past speech incorporating imagery (PEP-Imagery), semantic post-event processing about a past speech (PEP-Semantic), or a control condition, (n = 19 per experimental group, per condition [high vs low socially anxious]). After the condition inductions, individuals’ anxiety, their predictions of performance in the anticipated speech, and their interpretations of other ambiguous social events were measured. Consistent with predictions, high socially anxious individuals in the PEP-Imagery condition displayed greater anxiety than individuals in the other conditions immediately following the induction and before the anticipated speech task. They also interpreted ambiguous social scenarios in a more socially anxious manner than socially anxious individuals in the control condition. High socially anxious individuals made more negative predictions about their upcoming speech performance than low anxious participants in all conditions. The impact of imagery during post-event processing in social anxiety and its implications are discussed.     

Social fear and expressive reactions to social stimuli

This study explored whether subjects high as compared to low in social fear react with a more negative emotional response, measured as facial electromyographic (EMG) activity, when exposed to social stimuli (pictures of angry and happy facial expressions). It was found that subjects who rated themselves as relatively high in public speaking fear gave larger negative facial EMG responses (Corrugator supercilii muscle activity) to angry faces than did the low fear subjects. Low fear subjects, on the other hand, gave larger positive facial EMG responses (Zygomatic major muscle activity) to happy faces than did the high fear subjects. It was further found that happy stimuli were rated as more hostile and less friendly and happy by the high fear group. Consistent with earlier findings, it was concluded that the facial EMG technique is sensitive to detecting different reactions among subjects relatively high and low in social fear.     

Detecting Anxiety and Defensiveness from Visual and Auditory Cues

ABSTRACT Defensive individuals have been shown to differ from non-defensive individuals on a number of physiological and behavioral measures. We report two studies on observers' inferences of defensiveness, and the contribution of communication channels in the inference of defensiveness. Observers judged high and low state anxious segments of high and low trait anxious defensive and nondefensive individuals. Accurate assessments were made of (a) defensiveness, (b) state anxiety, and (c) trait anxiety: Individuals with higher levels of each variable were perceived as more anxious compared with the lower level. Effects for defensiveness and state anxiety were greater in audio-only segments, while effects for trait anxiety were greater in video-only segments. Inferences of defensiveness were greater at higher levels of state anxiety and trait anxiety. Low trait anxious defensive individuals were perceived as more anxious than the true low trait anxious. Results for defensiveness and trait anxiety were replicated in Study 2, and observers' perceptions of state anxiety matched individuals' self-reports: Defensive individuals with maximal differences between high and low state anxiety were seen as more anxious in high state anxiety, while defensive individuals with minimal differences between high and low state anxiety were regarded as less anxious in high state anxiety.     

Core beliefs,automatic thoughts and response expectancies in predicting public speaking anxiety

The present study examined the relationships between broad core cognitions, situation-specific automatic thoughts, and response expectancies in regard to their relative contributions to public speaking anxiety. Ninety-nine socially anxious participants (mean age = 20.25) completed measures of irrational beliefs and automatic thoughts specific to public speaking. Participants were then announced the task – giving a speech in front of a virtual reality audience – and response expectancies were measured. Subjective anxiety was measured just before the speech. As predicted, response expectancies and negative automatic thoughts specific to public speaking were each found to mediate the relationship between irrational beliefs and public speaking anxiety. Multiple mediation analysis indicated that the core irrational beliefs generated specific beliefs (i.e., response expectancies that primed automatic thoughts) that acted on speech-related anxiety.     

Real and virtual classrooms can trigger the same levels of stuttering severity ratings and anxiety in school-age children and adolescents who stutter

PurposeMany school-age children and adolescents who stutter experience the fear of public speaking. Treatment implications include the need to address this problem. However, it is not always possible to train repeatedly in front of a real audience. The present study aimed to assess the relevance of using a virtual classroom in clinical practice with school-age children and adolescents who stutter.MethodsTen children and adolescents who stutter (aged 9–17 years old) had to speak in three different situations: in front of a real audience, in front of a virtual class and in an empty virtual apartment using a head-mounted display. We aimed to assess whether the self-rated levels of anxiety while speaking in front of a virtual audience reflect the levels of anxiety reported while speaking in front of a live audience, and if the stuttering level while speaking to a virtual class reflects the stuttering level while speaking in real conditions.ResultsResults show that the real audience creates higher anticipatory anxiety than the virtual class. However, both the self-reported anxiety levels and the stuttering severity ratings when talking in front of a virtual class did not differ from those observed when talking to a real audience, and were significantly higher than when talking in an empty virtual apartment.ConclusionOur results support the feasibility and relevance of using a virtual classroom to expose school-age children and adolescents who stutter to a feared situation during cognitive behavioral therapy targeting the fear of public speaking.     

A negativity bias in interpersonal evaluation

Two studies were conducted to demonstrate a bias toward negativity in evaluations of persons or their work in particular social circumstances. In Study 1, subjects evaluated materials written by peers. Those working under conditions that placed them in low status relative to the audience for their evaluations, or conditions that made their intellectual position within a group insecure, showed a clear bias toward negativity in those evaluations. Only individuals who believed their audience to be of relatively low status and at the same time believed their intellectual position to be secure did not show this bias. In Study 2, subjects viewed a videotape of a stimulus person and rated him on several intellectual and social dimensions. Again, subjects believed their audience to be of either relatively high or relatively low status. As a cross dimension, they were given instructions to focus on either the intellectual or the social abilities of the stimulus person while viewing the videotape. A strong main effect of audience status was demonstrated, but only in ratings of intellectual traits; subjects who believed their audience to be of relatively high status rated the stimulus person's intellectual qualities significantly more negatively. Moreover, this effect was independent of the instructional focus subjects had been given. The negativity bias is discussed in the context of previous demonstrations of biases toward weighting negative information more heavily than positive information, as well as previous demonstrations of seemingly pervasive positivity biases in memory and judgment.     

Physiological, psychological and behavioral consequences of activating autobiographical memories

Activating an autobiographical memory for a specific childhood event can have immediate and robust physiological, psychological, and behavioral consequences. The target behavior was public speaking, a vital skill about which many people are socially anxious. In this study, it was suggested to subjects that they had a positive public speaking experience in early childhood; they then thought about and retrieved details of this true childhood memory. Compared to a control condition in which a different suggestion was made, subjects in the treatment group exhibited superior public speaking performance on the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Further, physiological measures of cortisol and a self-report measure of anxiety (STAI-S) reflected a significantly smaller increase in anxiety from before to after the TSST in the treatment than control condition. Activating autobiographical memory for an event increases the accessibility of that memory and consequently affects performance on related behaviors.     

Patterns and predictors of change in energy and mood around a vacation from the workplace: Distinguishing the effects of supplemental work activity and work-related perseverative cognition

This study contributes to the vacation literature by exploring predictors of change in school teachers' negative affective states around a 2-week (Christmas) vacation. Drawing from a combination of self-regulatory and effort-recovery theoretical principles, we hypothesized that supplemental work activity during the vacation might have some positive consequences for mood state, while simultaneously impairing the ability to recover from work-related exhaustion. Ninety teachers completed measures across eight consecutive weeks, spanning the period before, during and after vacation (710 observations in total). Teachers' weekly levels of emotional exhaustion, anxious mood and depressed mood decreased significantly from before to during the vacation. Following the vacation, anxious mood showed the most rapid rate of increase, returning to its prevacation level within 2 weeks of work resumption. Exhaustion and depressed mood re-emerged more gradually across 4 consecutive weeks following the vacation. Supplemental work activity during the vacation was associated with weaker recovery from exhaustion, but did not exhibit a detrimental relationship with change in anxious or depressed mood. Of note, supplemental working during the vacation was associated with a less pronounced re-emergence of anxious mood after the vacation. Work-related perseverative cognition (worry and rumination) during the vacation impeded energy restoration and mood repair and was related to faster fade out of beneficial vacation effects. These findings demonstrate the utility of examining discrete energy and mood states in respite research, reveal the mixed functions of engaging in supplemental work activity during vacations and highlight the harmful impact of perseverative cognition on the recovery from work process.     

Peer Perceptions of Social Skills in Socially Anxious and Nonanxious Adolescents

Previous studies using adult observers are inconsistent with regard to social skills deficits in nonclinical socially anxious youth. The present study investigated whether same age peers perceive a lack of social skills in the socially anxious. Twenty high and 20 low socially anxious adolescents (13–17 years old) were recorded giving a 5-min speech. Unfamiliar peer observers (12–17 years old) viewed the speech samples and rated four social skills: speech content, facial expressions, posture and body movement, and way of speaking. Peer observers perceived high socially anxious adolescents as significantly poorer than low socially anxious adolescents on all four social skills. Moreover, for all skills except facial expressions, group differences could not be attributed to adolescents’ self-reported level of depression. We suggest that therapists take the perceptions of same age peers into account when assessing the social skills of socially anxious youth.     

Why worry? The cognitive function of anxiety

The phenomenon of worry is considered to arise from cognitive processes involved in anxiety, that serve to maintain high levels of vigilance for personal danger. Rather than rely on self-report alone, the research described here draws on information processing methodology, to investigate this hypothesized cognitive function. Evidence is summarized to show that anxious subjects selectively attend to threatening information, and interpret ambiguous events in a relatively threatening way. However, the evidence on memory suggests that although such information may be easily activated, it is not necessarily more accessible. The allocation of attentional priority to threatening information is seen as a characteristic of anxious (rather than depressed) mood, while the ease with which this processing mode is adopted may underlie trait anxiety and vulnerability to anxiety disorders.     

Musical performance anxiety: The three-systems model and self-efficacy theory

Two major developments in behavioural formulations of fear and anxiety, the three-systems model and self-efficacy theory, were contrasted for differential predictions in anxious and nonanxious pianists playing under stressful and nonstressful conditions. Forty competent pianists were assigned to Relatively Anxious and Nonanxious groups using a median split and played alone and before an evaluative audience. Self-report, behavioural and physiological measures were recorded throughout the session using videotaping and telemetry systems. The audience condition elicited intense emotional responses in the Anxious pianists, while the Nonanxious pianists were somewhat less reactive. In the audience condition, the Relatively Anxious group exhibited increased levels of anxiety in each of the response systems (i.e. synchrony), while desynchrony was observed in the Relatively Nonaxious group. Correlations among the dependent measures were generally weak, but concordance was most often observed when intense emotional responses were elicited. The results were consistent with formulations of anxiety which emphasize the relative independence of the different measures, thereby lending more support to the three-systems model.     

Utility of virtual reality environments to examine physiological reactivity and subjective distress in adults who stutter

PurposeVirtual reality environments (VREs) allow for immersion in speaking environments that mimic real-life interactions while maintaining researcher control. VREs have been used successfully to engender arousal in other disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of virtual reality environments to examine physiological reactivity and subjective ratings of distress in persons who stutter (PWS).MethodSubjective and objective measures of arousal were collected from 10 PWS during four-minute speeches to a virtual audience and to a virtual empty room.ResultsStuttering frequency and physiological measures (skin conductance level and heart rate) did not differ across speaking conditions, but subjective ratings of distress were significantly higher in the virtual audience condition compared to the virtual empty room.ConclusionVREs have utility in elevating subjective ratings of distress in PWS. VREs have the potential to be useful tools for practicing treatment targets in a safe, controlled, and systematic manner.     

Measures of Eating-Related Characteristics for the General Population: Relationships With Temperament

A questionnaire that assessed a broad range of eating-related characteristics for unselected, normal subjects was factor analyzed in a two-step process proposed by Comrey (1984). Twelve "factored homogeneous item dimensions" were identified first and yielded three primary-level factors in a second factor analysis: Predisposition to Obesity (including Dieting and Preoccupation with, and Fear Of, Gaining Weight), Uncontrollable Urges to Eat (including Eating Momentum Beyond Control, Food a Panacea and Constant Temptation, and Secret Binging), and Predisposition to Anorexia (including Insufficient Eating Obvious to Others, Food Phobia, Inability to Eat, and Vomiting After Meals). The three primary-level factors were positively intercorrelated and exhibited significant positive, though weak, correlations with a measure of trait arousability. Also, weak results tentatively indicated that individuals with more pleasant and/or more arousable temperaments were less likely to be overweight. Subjects reported sharply higher levels of food consumption when feeling "depressed" (i.e., bored, lonely, sad) than when feeling "distressed" (i.e., uncomfortable, anxious, in pain). Uncontrollable Urges to Eat correlated positively and significantly with self-reports of food consumption while depressed, showing that those lacking control over eating ate especially more while feeling bored, lonely, or sad. Predisposition to Obesity correlated negatively and significantly with self-reports of food consumption while distressed, showing that those tending more toward obesity ate less while upset or anxious.