A transactional approach to social anxiety and the genesis of interpersonal closeness: Self, partner, and social context

It remains unclear whether social anxiety interferes with the generation of closeness during initial encounters. We addressed the question of whether perceived closeness between strangers differs as a function of dyad characteristics (i.e., self and partner levels of social anxiety) and social context. We conducted an experiment with 90 participants randomly assigned to either a 45-minute personal disclosure or small-talk dyadic conversation. Multilevel modeling results yielded a 3-way interaction, such that the effect of social anxiety on closeness generated during the interaction was moderated by social anxiety reported by interaction partners and social context. In the personal disclosure condition, perceived closeness was greatest when the most socially anxious individuals interacted with each other. In the small-talk condition, perceived closeness was greatest when the least socially anxious individuals interacted with each other. Across conditions, partners with substantial differences in social anxiety (i.e., mixed dyads) reported relatively less closeness than partners with similar levels of social anxiety. Social anxiety effects were not attributable to depressive symptoms or physical attraction to partners. These findings suggest that neglecting specific qualities of interaction partners and social situational factors may lead to spurious conclusions in understanding interpersonal outcomes related to social anxiety.     

Internet addiction among Norwegian adults: a stratified probability sample study

Most Norwegians are Internet users. We conducted a stratified probability sample study (Norway, 2007, age-group 16–74 years, N = 3,399, response rate 35.3%, 87.1% Internet users) to assess the prevalence of Internet addiction and at-risk Internet use by the Young Diagnostic Questionnaire (YDQ). The prevalence of Internet addiction (YDQ score 5–8) was 1.0% and an additional 5.2% were at-risk Internet users (YDQ score 3–4). Internet addiction and at-risk Internet use was strongly dependent on gender and age with highest prevalences among young males (16–29 years 4.1% and 19.0%, 30–39 years 3.3% and 10.7%). Logistic regression showed that male gender, young age, university level education, and an unsatisfactory financial situation were factors positively associated with "problematic Internet use" (at-risk and addicted use combined). Time spent on the Internet and prevalence of self-reported sleeping disorders, depression, and other psychological impairments increased linearly with YDQ score. Problematic Internet use clearly affects the lives of many people.     

Perceived Distributive Fairness of European Transfer Payments and EU‐Taxes in Austria,the Czech Republic,and the United Kingdom

The present research compared a distributive fairness model of EU transfer payments (Hartner, Rechberger, Kirchler, & Wenzel, 2011) between three countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, and the UK. The model postulates an interplay between EU‐tax compliance, distributive fairness, outcome favorability as well as national and European identification. Results across countries showed that EU‐tax compliance was positively related to distributive justice, which was in turn related to outcome favorability and identification. National identifiers perceived EU membership as unfavorable in financial and socio‐political terms, and thus considered the transfer payments as less fair. Dual identifiers perceived the socio‐political outcomes as more favorable, and thus evaluated the transfer payments as fairer. Although the basic structure of the model was valid across all three countries, two country‐specific results were found. First, in the UK individual tax paying behavior was influenced by outcome favorability, whereas in Austria and the Czech Republic this relationship was mediated via distributive fairness. Second, in the Austrian sample, the differentiation between patriots and nationalists proved fruitful since nationalists considered the EU transfer payments as unfair, unlike patriots. In the UK and the Czech Republic the distinction between nationalists and patriots did not add any further information.     

The dimensions of change in therapeutic community treatment instrument

In this article, the authors describe the refinement and preliminary evaluation of the Dimensions of Change in Therapeutic Community Treatment Instrument (DCI), a measure of treatment process. In Study 1, a 99-item DCI, administered to a cross-sectional sample of substance abuse clients (N = 990), was shortened to 54 items on the basis of results from confirmatory factor analyses and item response theory invariance tests. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analyses of the 54-item DCI, completed by a longitudinal cohort of 993 clients, established and validated an 8-factor solution across 2 subpopulations (adults and adolescents) and 2 time points (treatment entry and 30-days postentry). The results of the 2 studies are encouraging and support use of the 54-item DCI as a tool to measure treatment process.     

Communication and social skills in socially anxious and nonanxious individuals in the context of romantic relationships

This study examined differences between socially anxious and nonanxious individuals' ability to use effective communication skills and social skills in the context of romantic relationships. Socially anxious (n = 13) and nonanxious (n = 14) individuals and their romantic partners were videotaped while participating in 10-minute neutral, negative, and pleasant conversations. Regardless of the type of conversation in which they were involved, socially anxious individuals demonstrated impairment in 10 of the 11 social skill variables assessed. In negative conversations, socially anxious individuals displayed more "very negative" behaviors than nonanxious individuals, and across all conversations they displayed fewer "positive" behaviors than nonanxious individuals. Partners of socially anxious and nonanxious individuals did not differ in their communication quality. The results suggest that social anxiety is associated with deficits in relationship maintenance behavior and call for the completion of a larger study examining the interpersonal consequences of social anxiety.     

Interpretation biases in angry and anxious individuals

Although previous research has demonstrated many similarities between anxious and angry individuals, few studies have compared the degree and direction to which they exhibit cognitive biases in the presence of threat. The present study was a preliminary investigation of 28 angry participants, 30 anxious participants, and 26 non-angry/non-anxious participants who rated the likelihood of various explanations to account for ambiguous but potentially threatening events described in short prose passages. Angry participants rated the likelihood of positive explanations for ambiguous events lower than non-angry/non-anxious participants. Angry participants rated the likelihood of anger-related explanations higher than anxious and non-angry/non-anxious participants, and both angry and anxious participants rated anxiety-related explanations as being more likely than non-angry/non-anxious participants. Thus, both angry and anxious participants demonstrated a negative interpretation bias, although the bias was more pervasive in angry participants.