The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Social Anxiety Disorder by Justin W. Weeks

Author:Justin W. Weeks
Language: rus
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Clinical Psychology, Health & Well Being, Nonfiction, Psychology
ISBN: 9781118653890
Published: 2014-01-24T10:10:16+00:00

IV

Symptomological

Manifestations

15

Cognitive Biases among

Individuals with Social Anxiety

Shari A. Steinman, Eugenia I. Gorlin, and

Bethany A. Teachman

University of Virginia, USA

Why do individuals with social anxiety believe that they are incompetent in social

situations, sometimes even in the absence of negative feedback from others? Even

more puzzling, why does positive feedback often fail to ameliorate social anxiety? In

this chapter, we review empirical evidence for cognitive biases in individuals diagnosed

with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and individuals with high levels of social anxiety

(HSA, typically determined by exceeding a cut point on a questionnaire measure

of social anxiety symptoms). These biases are posited to maintain, and potentially

cause, social anxiety (e.g., Beck, Emery, & Greenberg, 1985; Clark & Wells, 1995;

Heimberg, Brozovich, & Rapee, 2010). Before evaluating the evidence for specific

categories of cognitive bias, we provide a brief, general overview of cognitive models

of social anxiety to lay the theoretical groundwork for the biases reviewed in this

chapter (see also Chapter 1 of this text and Musa & Lépine, 2000).

According to cognitive models (e.g., Beck et al., 1985; Clark & Wells, 1995),

social anxiety is characterized by negative beliefs about the self in social situations.

These beliefs include very high standards for the self (“I must never say the wrong

thing”), conditional beliefs related to negative evaluation (“If others notice I am

sweating, then they will reject me”), and unconditional beliefs about the self (“I am

not interesting”). Consequently, socially anxious individuals experience anxiety prior

to, during, and often following social situations. In their influential model, Clark and

Wells emphasized that when individuals with social anxiety fear negative evaluation,

they shift their attention inward, such that they focus on their emotions, including

anxiety, and their bodily sensations, such as blushing or heart pounding. This shift can

prevent socially anxious individuals from processing external cues, including others’

actual behavior, leaving socially anxious individuals to rely on their own feelings and

cognitive biases to determine how others view them. For example, someone with

social anxiety may miss potentially corrective social feedback, such as someone smiling

at them, and may instead think, “I feel anxious, so everyone must know I am anxious.”

The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Social Anxiety Disorder, First Edition. Edited by Justin W. Weeks.

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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