Gaining perspective on spatial perspective taking

Spatial perspective taking is a term that encompasses a class of phenomena that assess the extent to which a perceiver can access spatial information relative to a viewpoint different from the perceiver’s egocentric viewpoint (e.g. something on my right is on the left of someone facing me). We investigated whether spatial perspective taking that involves judging how objects are oriented around an agent is susceptible to alterations in social motivations. In all experiments, participants saw a picture of two objects and asked to judge the relationship between the objects when there was, or was not, an agent between them. Results from Experiment 1 showed that participants spontaneously described the objects from the agent’s perspective when he was present. Experiments 2 and 3 explored whether this effect was altered by prior participant exposure to manipulations of social inclusion or social exclusion. Results from these two studies demonstrated that socially included participants and socially excluded participants did not differ in their tendencies to adopt the spatial perspective of another. These results are discussed in the context of the results of other studies showing that perspective taking can be influenced by social motivations.     

社会群体的实体性:回顾与展望

社会群体的实体性是指群体被知觉为一个真正独立存在的有意义实体的程度.它受到知觉者、社会情境和文化等因素的影响.实体性在群际关系中具有重要意义,它影响着认同、刻板印象,偏见和群际冲突.实体性从本质上来说并不是绝对积极的或消极的群体特征,它主要取决于知觉者与群体的关系性质和其所处的情境.对中国研究者而言,如何让实体性最大可能地发挥积极作用,以利于群体关系的和谐是未来研究应该努力的方向;加强中国文化背景下实体性与群际关系的研究,为解决中国各社会阶层以及不同群体之间的和谐相处提供理论上的指导也是未来可以关注的方向.     

社交焦虑障碍中的注意偏差三成分研究述评

社交焦虑障碍表现为对一种或多种社交情境存在显著并持续的害怕,并表现出对社交刺激具有注意偏差,即注意增强、注意固着和注意回避,这三个成分交互作用促使社交焦虑持续发展.目前主要采用视觉搜索任务、点探测任务、空间线索任务,并结合眼动技术对此进行研究,但三成分之间的关系仍然存在疑惑,三者是否具有时间进程,如何衔接转换,仍需进一步检验.     

手机成瘾与抑郁：社交焦虑和负性情绪信息注意偏向的多重中介作用

为考察手机成瘾与抑郁的关系, 研究同时整合情绪和认知两方面因素, 探讨了社交焦虑和负性情绪信息注意偏向在手机成瘾和抑郁之间的多重中介作用。研究1共有545名大学生完成了大学生手机成瘾倾向量表、贝克抑郁量表和社会交往焦虑量表。研究2选取51名大学生采用问卷法和2(配对面孔表情的情绪类型: 负性、中性) × 2(探测点位置: 与负性情绪面孔表情同侧、与负性情绪面孔表情异侧)的被试内实验设计。结果表明: (1)手机成瘾、社交焦虑和抑郁两两间存在显著正相关, 且社交焦虑在手机成瘾和抑郁之间起完全中介作用; (2)社交焦虑和负性情绪信息注意偏向在手机成瘾与抑郁的关系中起链式中介作用, 而负性情绪信息注意偏向在手机成瘾与抑郁间的单独中介效应不显著。具体而言, 手机成瘾通过两条路径影响抑郁: 一是社交焦虑的单独中介作用; 二是社交焦虑→负性情绪信息注意偏向的链式中介作用。     

Selective orienting of attention to masked threat faces in social anxiety

The aims of the study were two-fold: to examine whether previous evidence of a pre-attentive bias for masked threat faces in anxious individuals could be replicated, and to assess the relationship between the predicted bias and measures of trait and social anxiety. Pairs of face stimuli were briefly displayed and masked in a modified version of the visual probe task. Results indicated that high anxious individuals were faster to respond to probes occurring in the spatial location of masked threat rather than neutral faces; consistent with their attention being automatically captured by sub-threshold threat cues. Furthermore, this vigilance effect for masked threat faces appeared to be primarily a function of social anxiety and social avoidance, rather than trait anxiety. It was also more apparent when threat faces were presented in the left visual field, suggestive of right hemisphere involvement.     

The interaction effect of attentional bias and attentional control on dispositional anxiety among adolescents

Research has shown that children and adolescents with attentional control deficits tend to have high anxiety and exhibit threat‐related selective attentional bias. This study aimed to investigate how positive and negative attentional biases would interact with attentional control on dispositional anxiety. One hundred and twenty participants aged 18 years of age or younger participated in a visual dot‐probe task to measure their attentional bias and completed psychological questionnaires to measure their trait anxiety, and attentional control. Mean reaction times to the probe in milliseconds were used to measure attentional bias. Overall, our participants showed a bigger tendency towards attending to positive emotional stimuli than to negative emotional stimuli. Adolescents with high dispositional anxiety showed poorer attentional control. Regression analyses showed that attentional control interact with negative attentional bias to affect anxiety. For participants with high attentional control, higher negative attentional bias was associated with lower trait anxiety. Trait anxiety was not related to negative attentional bias for participants with low attentional control. Positive attentional bias showed no significant relationship with dispositional anxiety, either alone or in interaction with attentional control. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Cognitive processes as mediators of the relation between mindfulness and change in social anxiety symptoms following cognitive behavioral treatment

The present study examined whether pretreatment mindfulness exerts an indirect effect on outcomes following cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Cognitive processes of probability and cost bias (i.e., overestimations of the likelihood that negative social events will occur, and that these events will have negative consequences when they do occur) were explored as potential mediators of the relation between mindfulness and social anxiety symptom change. People with higher levels of mindfulness may be better able to benefit from treatments that reduce biases because mindfulness may aid in regulation of attention. Sixty-seven individuals with a primary diagnosis of social phobia identifying public speaking as their greatest fear received eight sessions of one of two types of exposure-based CBT delivered according to treatment manuals. Participants completed self-report measures of mindfulness, probability bias, cost bias, and social anxiety symptoms. Mediation hypotheses were assessed by a bootstrapped regression using treatment outcome data. Pretreatment mindfulness was not related to change in social anxiety symptoms from pre- to posttreatment. However, mindfulness had an indirect effect on treatment outcome via its association with probability bias, but not cost bias, at midtreatment. These findings were consistent across three metrics of social anxiety symptoms. Mindfulness may play a role in response to CBT among individuals with social phobia through its relation with probability bias – even when the treatment does not target mindfulness.     

Learning strategy is influenced by trait anxiety and early rearing conditions in prepubertal male, but not prepubertal female rats

Rodents solve dual-solution tasks that require navigation to a goal by adopting either a hippocampus-dependent place strategy or a striatum-dependent stimulus-response strategy. A variety of factors, including biological sex and emotional status, influence the choice of learning strategy. In these experiments, we investigated the relationship between learning strategy and anxiety level in male and female rats prior to the onset of puberty, before the activational effects of gonadal hormones influence these processes. In the first experiment, prepubertal male rats categorized as high in trait anxiety at 26days of age exhibited a bias toward stimulus-response strategy at 28days of age, whereas age-matched females exhibited no preference in strategy regardless of anxiety level. In the second experiment, male and female rats were separated from their dams for either 15 or 180min per day during the first 2weeks of life and tested on a battery of anxiety and cognitive tasks between 25 and 29days of age. Prolonged maternal separations for 180min were associated with impaired spatial memory on a Y-maze task in both prepubertal males and females. Furthermore, prolonged maternal separations were linked to elevated anxiety and a bias for stimulus-response strategy in prepubertal males but not females. Alternatively, brief separations from dams for 15min were associated with intact spatial memory, lower levels of anxiety, and no preference for either learning strategy in both sexes. These results provide evidence of sex-specific effects of trait anxiety and early maternal separation on the choice of learning strategy used by prepubertal rodents.     

Self-construal and social anxiety: Considering personality

Self-construal has been identified as a potential means to explain cultural differences in social anxiety. Yet, research findings suggest that self-construal is an individual difference as much as a cultural difference. We tested for mediation and moderation regarding self-construal, social anxiety, and other primary individual difference constructs. Our results indicated that the relation of extraversion and neuroticism to social anxiety was partially mediated by independent self-construal. In addition, the relationship between social anxiety and interdependent self-construal was moderated by neuroticism. These results suggest that personality traits play an important role in the relationship between social anxiety and self-construal. Clinical interventions that consider the interplay between self-construal and personality may be helpful in decreasing social anxiety.     

Social anxiety and posttraumatic stress in combat veterans: relations to well-being and character strengths

There are few studies examining the relationship between psychopathology and positive experiences and traits. Although initial studies suggest persons with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at increased risk for excessive social anxiety, there have been no studies to date evaluating how these conditions might interact to affect positive experiences and traits. Using self-report scales, informant ratings, and experience-sampling methodologies, we examined the association of social anxiety with well-being and character strengths in veterans with and without PTSD. Controlling for PTSD and trait negative affect, social anxiety was negatively related to global ratings of well-being and character strengths. Social anxiety also accounted for incremental variance in day-to-day well-being (i.e., daily affect balance, percentage of pleasant days, positive social activity, self-esteem, gratitude) over a 14-day assessment period. Although veterans with PTSD reported lower levels of global and daily well-being and character strengths than veterans without PTSD, a diagnosis of PTSD failed to exhibit unique relationships with these constructs. Building on a growing body of work, these data suggest that social anxiety is uniquely associated with disturbances in positive experiences, events, and traits. Our findings support the value of directly addressing social anxiety in the study and treatment of PTSD.     

Modelling relationships between cognitive variables during and following public speaking in participants with social phobia

Cognitive models of social phobia predict that several cognitive processes will mediate the relationship between trait levels of social anxiety and the extent of anxiety experienced in a specific social-evaluative situation. The current study aimed to provide a test of these relationships. Over 200 clinical participants with social phobia completed measures of their general social anxiety and a week later performed a brief impromptu speech. They completed a measure of state anxiety in response to the speech as well as questionnaires assessing several cognitive constructs including focus of perceived attention, perceived performance, and probability and cost of negative evaluation. A week later, they completed measures of negative rumination experienced over the week, as well as a measure of the recollection of their perceived performance. Path analysis provided support for a model in which the cognitive factors mediated between general social anxiety and the degree of anxiety experienced in response to the speech. A second model supported the theory that negative rumination mediated between characteristic social anxiety and negative bias in the recollection of performance.     

Do self-report measures of social anxiety reflect cultural bias or real difficulties for Asian American college students?

Construal of the self as independent or interdependent in relation to others has been found to correlate significantly with social anxiety symptom ratings, raising concerns about possible cultural bias in these measures for Asian Americans. To investigate the validity of self-reported social anxiety symptoms, we examined the role of ethnicity in the associations among social anxiety, self-construal, and adaptive social functioning in a sample of 229 Asian- and European American college students. Results revealed that ethnicity moderated the relationship between self-construal and social anxiety such that interdependent self-construal was associated with higher social anxiety only for first generation Asian Americans. However, there were no significant ethnic differences in the associations between social anxiety self-reports and several measures of social functioning.     

Eye-contact perception in schizophrenia: relationship with symptoms and socioemotional functioning

Accurately perceiving self-referential social signals, particularly eye contact, is critical to social adaptation. Schizophrenia is often accompanied by deficits in social cognition, but it is unclear whether this includes gaze discrimination deficits. This study investigated whether eye-contact perception is preserved or impaired and if it is related to symptoms and broader socioemotional functioning in schizophrenia. Twenty-six participants with schizophrenia (SCZ) and 23 healthy controls (HC) made eye-contact judgments for faces in varying gaze direction (from averted to direct in ten 10% increments), head orientation (forward, 30° averted), and emotion (neutral, fearful). Psychophysical analyses for forward faces showed that SCZ began endorsing eye contact with weaker eye-contact signal and their eye-contact perception was less of a dichotomous function, as compared with HC. SCZ were more likely than HC to endorse eye contact when gaze was ambiguous, and this overperception of eye contact was modulated by head orientation and emotion. Overperception of eye contact was associated with more severe negative symptoms. Decreased categorical gaze perception explained variance of socioemotional deficits in schizophrenia after taking basic neurocognition into consideration, suggesting the relationship was not solely due to a general deficit problem. These results were discussed in relation to the nature of categorical gaze perception and its significance to clinical and functional presentations of schizophrenia.     

Interpretation bias and social anxiety: does interpretation bias mediate the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses?

Two studies aimed to examine whether high socially anxious individuals are more likely to negatively interpret ambiguous social scenarios and facial expressions compared to low socially anxious individuals. We also examined whether interpretation bias serves as a mediator of the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses, in particular current state anxiety, bodily sensations, and perceived probability and cost of negative evaluation pertaining to a speech task. Study 1 used ambiguous social scenarios and Study 2 used ambiguous facial expressions as stimuli to objectively assess interpretation bias. Undergraduate students with high and low social anxiety completed measures of state anxiety responses at three time points: baseline, after the interpretation bias task, and after the preparation for an impromptu speech. Results showed that high socially anxious individuals were more likely to endorse threat interpretations for ambiguous social scenarios and to interpret ambiguous faces as negative than low socially anxious individuals. Furthermore, negative interpretations mediated the relationship between trait social anxiety and perceived probability of negative evaluation pertaining to the speech task in Study 1 but not Study 2. The present studies provide new insight into the role of interpretation bias in social anxiety.     

注意偏向训练对社交焦虑的干预：方法、效果与机制

社交焦虑障碍是最普遍且难于治疗的精神障碍之一。大量研究发现, 注意偏向训练可以有效缓解社交焦虑。研究者从自我报告、结构化评估、生理记录等方面考察发现, 接受了注意偏向训练的社交焦虑个体其注意偏向、生理唤醒和脑神经活动发生变化并且社交焦虑症状有所缓解。注意偏向训练对社交焦虑的干预机制可能是因为训练提升了个体对威胁性刺激的注意解除能力。今后的研究可以进一步明确注意偏向训练干预社交焦虑的效果与机制, 拓宽评估注意偏向训练效果的手段, 并探索其对社交焦虑干预的长期效果和对其它心理疾病的作用。     

Trained interpretive bias and anxiety

The relationship between anxiety and interpretive bias has been studied extensively, but the causal direction of this relationship remains largely unexplored. Do negative interpretations cause anxiety or is anxiety the cause of negative interpretations? Or are the two mutually reinforcing? The present study addressed this issue by experimentally inducing either a negative or a positive interpretive bias using Mathews and Mackintosh' [(2002). Induced emotional interpretation bias and anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 604-615] training paradigm and then examining its impact on state anxiety and anxiety vulnerability. In addition, it was investigated as to whether the interpretive bias was trained implicitly. Results indicated that style of interpreting could be manipulated. That is, when confronted with ambiguous information after the training, participants (n=118) interpreted this information congruent with their (positive or negative) training condition. Data on the issue of implicitness showed that participants tended to be explicitly aware of the valence of their training stimuli. Effects of trained interpretive bias on anxiety were only marginal and absent on anxiety vulnerability. It appears that interpretive bias can be trained reliably, but its effects on mood and vulnerability require further explanation.     

Cross-cultural patterns in emotion recognition: highlighting design and analytical techniques

This article highlights a range of design and analytical tools for studying the cross-cultural communication of emotion using forced-choice experimental designs. American, Indian, and Japanese participants judged facial expressions from all 3 cultures. A factorial experimental design is used, balanced n x n across cultures, to separate "absolute" cultural differences from "relational" effects characterizing the relationship between the emotion expressor and perceiver. Use of a response bias correction is illustrated for the tendency to endorse particular multiple-choice categories more often than others. Treating response bias also as an opportunity to gain insight into attributional style, the authors examined similarities and differences in response patterns across cultural groups. Finally, the authors examined patterns in the errors or confusions that participants make during emotion recognition and documented strong similarity across cultures.     

Effects of Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety on Self-Disclosure among Unacquainted Individuals: An Application of the Social Relations Model

Recent research has demonstrated a positive relationship between private self-consciousness and the tendency to self-disclose. These studies have relied exclusively upon self-reports of disclosure. In the present study, Kenny's Social Relations Model (Kenny & La Voie, 1984) was employed to examine the relationship between a subject's self-reports and others' reports of a subject's level of self-disclosure and the relationship of these reports to private self-consciousness, as well as the other traits measured by the self-consciousness scale: public self-consciousness and social anxiety. Unacquainted college women (N = 102) participated in one-on-one interactions in a round-robin design. Subject's self-reports of disclosure and their levels of private self-consciousness correlated positively. The partners' reports of an individual's disclosure, however, were not related to the individual's level of private self-consciousness. The discrepancy between these correlations emphasizes the necessity to ground research in personal relationships on interacting pairs and not only on the self-reports of one member. Future research that would explore this difference is discussed. The examination of the self- and partner reports and subjects' levels of public self-consciousness and social anxiety demonstrated that these two traits significantly influence the acquaintance process. Public self-consciousness related positively to subjects' beliefs that they had created consistent impressions upon their partners. Social anxiety correlated negatively with partners' reports of a subject's dyadic involvement and openness.     

Intergenerational transmission of attentional bias and anxiety

Earlier evidence has revealed a bi‐directional causal relationship between anxiety and attention biases in adults and children. This study investigated the prospective and concurrent relations between anxiety and attentional bias in a sample of 89 families (mothers, fathers, and first‐born children). Parents’ and children's attentional bias was measured when children were 7.5 years old, using both a visual probe task and visual search task with angry versus happy facial expressions. Generalized and social anxiety symptoms in parents and children were measured when children were 4.5 and 7.5 years old. Anxiety in parents and children was prospectively (but not concurrently) related to their respective attentional biases to threat: All participants showed a larger attentional bias to threat in the visual search (but not in the visual probe) task if they were more anxious at the 4.5 (but not at the 7.5) year measurement. Moreover, parents’ anxiety levels were prospectively predictive of the visual search attentional bias of their children after controlling for child anxiety. More anxiety in mothers at 4.5 years was related to a faster detection of angry among happy faces, while more anxiety in fathers predicted a faster detection of happy among angry faces in children at 7.5 years. We found no direct association between parental and child attentional biases. Our study contributes to the recently emerging literature on attentional biases as a potential mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety by showing that parents’ anxiety rather than parents’ attentional bias contributes to the intergenerational transmission of risk for child anxiety.     

Through the eyes of anxiety: Dissecting threat bias via emotional-binocular rivalry

An extensive body of research has demonstrated that anxious individuals abnormally process threat-related content. Yet, the manner in which clinical anxiety affects the selection of threatening signals and their maintenance within consciousness is yet to be explored. The present study used an emotional binocular rivalry (e-BR) procedure, in which pictures of faces depicting either fearful or neutral expressions competed with pictures of a house for conscious perception. We assumed that first- or cumulative-preferred perception of faces with fearful over neutral expression (i.e., initial or sustained threat bias, respectively) stand for preferential selection or maintenance of fear content in awareness, correspondingly. Unmedicated patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and panic disorder (PAD) were compared to healthy controls for threat-related perceptual biases in the e-BR. At first perception of face, both SAD and PAD patients showed a greater initial threat bias than healthy controls. In contrast, at cumulative dwell-time of face, patient groups demonstrated a diminished sustained threat bias relative to healthy controls, yet in a different manner. SAD patients showed a sustained threat bias, though it was smaller than in healthy controls. Furthermore, increased levels of reported anxiety among SAD patients were associated with enhanced sustained perception of neutral faces. PAD patients, on the other hand, showed no sustained threat bias and a diminished cumulative perception of fearful faces with increased levels of anxiety traits. These findings indicate that anxiety disorders commonly involve an initially enhanced selection of threat signals into awareness, followed by disorder-specific manifestation of diminished preferred maintenance of threat in awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).