Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T01:37:08.705Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Maintaining Factors of Social Anxiety: A Three-Group Comparison of a Clinical Sample with Highly Socially Anxious Students and Non-Anxious Students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2015

Sonja Skocic*
Affiliation:
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Henry Jackson
Affiliation:
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Carol Hulbert
Affiliation:
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Christina Faber
Affiliation:
The University of Melbourne, Australia
*
Reprint requests to Sonja Skocic, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, Redmond Barry Building, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia3010. E-mail: skocic.s@unimelb.edu.au

Abstract

Background: Clark and Wells' (1995) cognitive model of social anxiety (CWM) explains the maintenance of social anxiety and has been used as a guide for treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Few studies have examined the components of the model together across different samples. Aims: This study had two distinct aims: to test the components of CWM and to examine how the variables of CWM may differ between clinical and non-clinical samples with varying levels of social anxiety. Method: Hypothesized relationships between three groups (i.e. a clinical sample of individuals diagnosed with SAD (ClinS), n = 40; socially anxious students (HSA), n = 40; and, non-anxious students (LSA), n = 40) were investigated. Results: Four out of five CWM variables tested were able to distinguish between highly socially anxious and non-anxious groups after controlling for age and depression. Conclusions: CWM variables are able to distinguish between high and low levels of social anxiety and are uniquely related to social anxiety over depression.

Type
Empirically Grounded Clinical Interventions
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th Edition-Text Revision). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Brown, T.A., Di Nardo, P.A., Lehman, C.L. and Campbell, L.A. (2001). Reliability of DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders: implications for the classification of emotional disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 4958.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butler, G. and Mathews, A. (1983). Cognitive processes in anxiety. Advances in Behavior Research and Therapy, 24, 461470.Google Scholar
Clark, D.M. (2001). A cognitive perspective on social phobia. In Crozier, W.R. and Alden, L.E. (Eds.), International Handbook of Social Anxiety (pp.405430). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Clark, D.M. and Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In Heimberg, R.G., Liebowitz, M.R., Hope, D.A. and Schneier, F.R. (Eds.), Social Phobia: diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp.6993). New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Clark, D.M., Ehlers, A., McManus, F., Hackmann, A., Fennell, M., Campbell, H., et al. (2003). Cognitive therapy vs. fluoxetine in generalized social phobia: a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71, 10581067.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, D. M., Ehlers, A., Hackmann, A., McManus, F., Fennell, M., Grey, N., et al. (2006). Cognitive therapy versus exposure and applied relaxation in social phobia: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 568578.Google Scholar
Clark, D.M., Salkovskis, P.M., Hackmann, A., Middleton, H., Anastasiades, P. and Gelder, M. (1994). A comparison of cognitive therapy, applied relaxation and imipramine in the treatment of panic disorder. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 759769.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155159.Google Scholar
Cuming, S., Rapee, R.M., Kemp, N., Abbott, M.J., Peters, L. and Gaston, J.E. (2009). A self-report measure of subtle avoidance and safety behaviours relevant to social anxiety: development and psychometric properties. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23, 879883.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Di Nardo, P.A. and Barlow, D.H. (1988). Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule-Revised (ADIS-R). Albany, New York: Graywind.Google Scholar
Draine, S.C. (2001). Inquisit (Version 1.32) [Computer software]. Seattle, WA: Millisecond Software.Google Scholar
Eaton, W. W., Smith, C., Ybarra, M., Muntaner, C. and Tien, A. (2004). Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale: review and revision (CESD and CESD-R). (pp.363377). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Google Scholar
Fenigstein, A., Scheier, M.F. and Buss, A.H. (1975). Public and private self-consciousness: assessment and theory. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 43, 522527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, A. P., Psychol, C. and Morgan, J. (2004). Post-event processing and the retrieval of autobiographical memories in socially anxious individuals. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 18, 647663.Google Scholar
Foa, E.B., Franklin, M.E., Perry, K.J. and Herbert, J.D. (1996). Cognitive bias in generalised social phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 15, 433439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodson, K.J., McManus, F.V., Clark, D.M. and Doll, H. (2008). Can Clark and Wells' (1995) cognitive model of social phobia be applied to young people? Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 36, 449461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofmann, S.G. (2004). Cognitive mediation of treatment change in social phobia. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72, 392399.Google Scholar
Lampe, L., Slade, T., Issakidis, C. and Andrews, G. (2003). Social phobia in the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (NSMHWB). Psychological Medicine: A Journal of Research in Psychiatry and the Allied Sciences, 33, 637646.Google Scholar
Mansell, W., Clark, D.M., Ehlers, A. and Chen, Y. (1999). Social anxiety and attention away from emotional faces. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 673690.Google Scholar
Mattick, R.P. and Clarke, J.C. (1998). Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutinising fear and social interaction anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 455470.Google Scholar
McManus, F., Clark, D.M. and Hackmann, A. (2000). Specificity of cognitive biases in social phobia and their role in recovery. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 28, 201209.Google Scholar
Mellings, T.M.B. and Alden, L.E. (2000). Cognitive processes in social anxiety: the effects of self-focus, rumination and anticipatory processing. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 243257.Google Scholar
Morgan, H. and Raffle, C. (1999). Does reducing safety behaviours improve treatment response in patients with social phobia? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 33, 503510.Google Scholar
Peters, L. (2000). Discriminant validity of the social phobia and anxiety inventory (SPAI), the social phobia scale (SPS) and the social interaction anxiety scale (SIAS). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 943950.Google Scholar
Radloff, L.S. (1977). The CES-D scale: a self report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385401.Google Scholar
Rapee, R.M., Abbott, M.J., Baillie, A.J. and Gaston, J.E. (2007). Treatment of social phobia through pure self-help and therapist-augmented self-help. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 191, 246252.Google Scholar
Scheier, M.F. and Carver, C.C. (1985). The self-consciousness scale: a revised version for use with general populations. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 15, 687699.Google Scholar
Skocic, S. (2013). Adult Attachment Styles and their Impact on Persistence and Processing in Relation to Cognitive Models of Social Anxiety (PhD thesis). The University of Melbourne, Psychological Sciences.Google Scholar
Smits, J.A.J., Rosenfield, D., McDonald, R. and Telch, M.J. (2006). Cognitive mechanisms of social anxiety reduction: an examination of specificity and temporality. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 12031212.Google Scholar
Spurr, J.M. and Stopa, L. (2002). Self-focused attention in social phobia and social anxiety. Clinical Psychology Review, 22, 947975.Google Scholar
Stopa, L. and Clark, D.M. (2000). Social phobia and interpretation of social events. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 273283.Google Scholar
Uren, T.H., Szabo, M. and Lovibond, P.F. (2004). Probability and cost estimates for social and physical outcomes in social phobia and panic disorder. Anxiety Disorders, 18, 481498.Google Scholar
Wells, A., Clark, D.M., Salkovskis, P., Ludgate, J., Hackmann, A. and Gelder, M. (1995). Social phobia: the role of in-situation safety behaviours in maintaining anxiety and negative beliefs. Behavior Therapy, 26, 153161.Google Scholar
Wong, Q.J.J. and Moulds, M.L. (2009). Impact of rumination versus distraction on anxiety and maladaptive self-beliefs in socially anxious individuals. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 861867.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.