Background: Cognitive models propose that social anxiety arises from specific dysfunctional cognitions about the likelihood and severity of embarrassment. Relational frame theory (RFT), on the other hand, posits that social anxiety arises from the unwillingness to endure unpleasant internal experiences (i.e. experiential avoidance [EA]). Although cognitive models have garnered empirical support, it may be that newer models such as RFT can improve our ability to predict and treat social anxiety. Aims: We aimed to elucidate the relationship between dysfunctional cognitions and EA, as well as their independent and relative contributions to the prediction of social anxiety symptoms. We hypothesized that dysfunctional cognitions and EA would each be associated with social anxiety, as well as with each other. We also predicted that both EA and dysfunctional cognitions would remain independent predictors of social anxiety symptoms after controlling for each other and general distress. Method: Undergraduates high (n = 173) and low (n = 233) in social anxiety completed measures of social anxiety, dysfunctional cognitions, EA, and general distress. The overall sample was 66.3% female; mean age = 20.01 years (SD = 2.06). Results: Correlational analyses revealed that EA, dysfunctional cognitions, and social anxiety symptoms were moderately correlated with one another. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that dysfunctional cognitions predicted social anxiety symptoms even after controlling for EA; the reverse was not found. Conclusions: Results suggest that EA and social anxiety specific cognitive distortions overlap to a moderate extent. EA does not add to the prediction of social anxiety symptoms above and beyond dysfunctional cognitions. Additional theoretical and treatment implications of the results are discussed.

Background: This study investigated the role of cognitive mechanisms underlying obsessive compulsive and panic disorders in psychosis, and in particular, their possible contributions to acute psychosis. Method: A total of 90 participants were recruited comprising three equal-size groups, including two clinical groups (acute and stable) and one non-clinical matched control group. Symptom severity and distress was assessed using the PSYRATS, and questionnaire measures of anxiety and obsessive beliefs were administered to all participants. Results: Individuals with a diagnosis of psychosis reported significantly higher levels of obsessional beliefs and anxiety sensitivity than the non-clinical group. Furthermore, acutely psychotic patients reported a significantly higher sense of responsibility and catastrophic misinterpretation than the stable psychiatric controls, and than samples of OCD and GAD patients. Conclusions: Results suggest that these anxiety processes are particularly important during acute psychotic episodes, beyond the reported comorbidity. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings, the limitations of the methodology employed, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This study aimed at testing whether there were different types of dysfunctional schemas and cognitive distortions that could help to differentiate three emotional/behavioural problems, i.e., anxiety, depression, and aggression, from each other. Five hundred and eighty-one Chinese adolescents from five mainstream high schools in Hong Kong were recruited and completed several self-report questionnaires. Bivariate correlation showed an indiscriminate pattern of association between dysfunctional schemas, cognitive distortions, and the three emotional/behavioural problems. However, when the effects of the confounding correlated emotional/behavioural problems were controlled in regression analysis, different problems did show some specific association with different types of dysfunctional schemas and/or cognitive distortions. Despite some inconsistency, these findings generally supported a specificity hypothesis. Cognitive variables were thus not only relevant in understanding psychopathology, but their different patterns of association with anxiety, depression, and aggression also supported the separability of these three emotional/behavioural problems, despite their significant correlation.

A community sample of 405 adolescents were given the Youth Self-Report Form (YSR) and the Children's Negative Cognitive Errors Questionnaire (CNCEQ). Both regression and group comparison analyses, using the full sample and a subset of extreme scorers, respectively, indicated that internalising problems were specifically associated with the various forms of cognitive distortions assessed, namely, selective abstraction, personalising, overgeneralisation, and catastrophising. Furthermore, they displayed a curvilinear relationship; as the severity of internalising problems increased, the magnitude of cognitive distortions grew positively at a quadratic rate, displaying a U-shaped upward curve. However, in view of the potential measurement bias of CNCEQ toward internalising problems, the conclusion was qualified. Although our results found some specific event/schema-linked cognitive distortions that distinguished internalising from externalising problems, we could not conclude that the latter were free from any other event/schema-linked cognitive distortions that the CNCEQ might have failed to elicit.

Abbreviations: CNCEQ: Children's Negative Cognitive Errors Questionnaire; YSR: Youth Self-Report Form.

Cette étude pilote sur un cas se propose d'étudier les modifications de certains marqueurs linguistiques au cours d'une thérapie cognitive de la dépression, selon le modèle de Beck. Les 12 entretiens de la psychothérapie sont enregistrés sur bande magnétique, permettant une analyse systématique de toutes les distorsions cognitives. En parallèle, est menée une analyse clinique et linguistique qui porte plus sélectivement sur 4 entretiens équidistants. Ainsi seront cotés aux entretiens 1, 4, 8 et 12 les échelles de la dépression de Hamilton, de l'anxiété de Hamilton et le Beck Depresion Inventory. De plus, une analyse propositionnelle du discours centrée sur l'étude des verbes, de la déictisation de locution, de la modalisation et des joncteurs est menée. Le dépouillement de toutes les données sémantiques s'effectue grâce au logiciel d'analyse propositionnelle du discours (Groupe de recherche sur la parole, Paris-VIII). L'évolution clinique favorable sous thérapie est traduite non seulement par l'amélioration de la symptomatologie mais aussi par la diminution des scores aux échelles d'anxiété et de dépression. Parallèlement, les distorsions cognitives diminuent quantitativement dans l'ensemble et plus spécifiquement pour l'inférence arbitraire et la personnalisation. Certains témoins linguistiques (verbes factifs, joncteurs oppositifs…) varient significativement, pouvant ainsi traduire les modifications opérées par la thérapie cognitive dans la structure discursive du patient.