Are people with social anxiety disorder happier alone?

Goodman, Fallon R.; Rum, Ruba; Silva, Gabriella; Kashdan, Todd B.

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102474

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…In this vein, the observed absence of SAD-related PA deficits within the social condition in the current study can be interpreted as reflecting intact reward responding, whereas this might not be true of more anxiety-provoking evaluative contexts that activate social threat appraisals. The notion that positivity deficits are context-specific is consistent with recent studies showing that people with SAD are capable of extracting reward from certain social contexts relative to others (Goodman et al, 2021; Oren-Yagoda & Aderka, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Rather, our data demonstrate that there are circumstances under which those with SAD might exhibit normal levels of PA that appear indistinguishable from HCs. To this end, two recent studies based on experience sampling methods found that people with SAD exhibit context-specific fluctuations in levels of PA: in one study, participants with SAD reported higher PA when interacting with others than when alone Goodman et al (2021) found that, while in a second study individuals with SAD reported experiencing greater PA when interacting with others using visual mediums rather than voice- or text-based mediums (Oren-Yagoda & Aderka, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Daily diary and experience-sampling measures in studies using ecological momentary analysis have advanced our field by enabling researchers to examine PA over time as it changes in response to evolving contexts within participants’ every-day lives (e.g., Farmer & Kashdan, 2012; Goodman et al, 2021; Kashdan & Collins, 2010; Oren-Yagoda & Aderka, 2021). However, these approaches are not without their own limitations.…”

Section: Methodological Considerations In the Measurement Of Pamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Positive emotional reactivity to pleasant social and nonsocial stimuli in social anxiety disorder.

Barber¹,

Moscovitch²

2023

Emotion

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Prior research has shown that Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is associated with significantly diminished positive affect (PA). Few studies have examined PA reactivity to pleasant experimental stimuli in individuals with SAD and whether emotional responses might be moderated by social context. Here, we investigated repeated measures of PA reactivity among individuals with SAD (n = 46) and healthy controls (HC; n = 39) in response to standardized neutral images, pleasant music, and social versus nonsocial guided imagery. Primary analyses revealed that SAD and HC participants did not differ in their PA reactivity when PA was conceptualized as a unitary construct. Exploratory analyses examining discrete subfacets of PA revealed potential deficits for SAD participants in relaxed and content PA, but not activated PA. Although participants with SAD reported relatively lower levels of relaxed and content PA overall compared with controls, they exhibited normal increases in all PA subfacets in response to pleasant music as well as pleasant social and nonsocial stimuli. These findings support a more nuanced conclusion about PA deficits in SAD than is described in the extant literature, suggesting that detecting PA deficits in SAD may depend upon how PA is conceptualized, evoked, and measured.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodological Considerations In the Measurement Of Pamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Positive emotional reactivity to pleasant social and nonsocial stimuli in social anxiety disorder.

Barber¹,

Moscovitch²

2023

Emotion

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“…Nevertheless, even people whose fears of social evaluation are crippling and intense—who are not merely shy but who are suffering from a debilitating, clinically diagnosable social anxiety disorder (SAD)—enjoy being with others more than they like being alone. Ecological momentary assessments have found that, compared to peers who do not have SAD, those saddled with SAD experience lower positive affect and higher negative affect during their daily lives but still get a positive boost (though no less negative affect) when others are present (Goodman et al, 2021). Furthermore, when people with SAD engaged in more standardized (and rather ideal) “warm and pleasant” interactions with research assistants in a lab—taking turns answering six questions from Aron et al’s (1997) closeness-generating task—their reports of anxiety decreased and their feelings of pleasantness and connectedness to the assistant increased (Taylor et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced Mood After a Getting-Acquainted Interaction with a Stranger: Do Shy People Benefit Too?

Sprecher

Miller

Fehr

et al. 2022

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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People report positive moods and enhanced well-being when they socialize with friends and other close ties. However, because most people routinely have more encounters with acquaintances and strangers (social connections known as weak ties) than with close friends or kin ( strong ties), we deemed it important to examine whether interaction with weak ties also enhances happiness and well-being. This investigation, which analyzed data from two laboratory procedures, examined whether participants’ positive affect (PA) increased and negative affect (NA) decreased, from before to after a getting-acquainted interaction with a stranger. We also considered whether any benefits of the interaction were moderated by the participants’ level of shyness. Participants ( N = 270; 135 dyads) from a U.S. university completed mood indices before and after a getting-acquainted task. Their PA significantly increased and their NA significantly decreased from before to after the interaction. Shy participants experienced greater NA both before and after the getting-acquainted interaction (relative to less shy participants), but the shyness level of our participants did not moderate the pattern of change in their PA and NA. Shy participants experienced increases in PA and decreases in NA that were similar to those of less shy participants. We discuss implications of the results regarding the important role of weak social connections for increasing one’s daily mood, including for those who are shy.

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“…Another advantage of TLCs is that they are often enjoyable and have the capacity to become healthy, self-sustaining habits (Walsh, 2011). For example, people experience high levels of positive emotion while exercising and while socialising (Bryson & MacKerron, 2017;Goodman, Rum, Silva & Kashdan, 2021;Hudson, Lucas & Donnellan, 2020;Mogilner, 2010). Similarly, acts of giving elicit positive emotions in both adults and children (Dunn, Aknin & Norton, 2014).…”

Section: Social Connection and Psychosismentioning

confidence: 99%

Presenting a New Model for Addressing Non-severe Psychological Problems: Community Centres Dedicated to Therapeutic Lifestyle Change

Mills

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<p><strong>When clinical psychology emerged as a professional discipline, the illness ideology was embedded into its core assumptions. This ideology, which assumes a fundamental similarity between medical and mental problems, has led to the mistaken belief that psychological problems are best conceptualised as categorical, rather than dimensional. This misunderstanding has contributed to a neglect of non-severe psychological issues. In this thesis, I outline the importance of addressing non-severe psychological problems and present a model for doing so. Interventions for this group must be highly generalizable, so that the same treatment can be applied uniformly across the population, in order to achieve the required scalability. To achieve generalizability, my model focuses on highly non-specific mechanisms of change: therapeutic lifestyle changes (e.g., physical activity, social connection). I propose that participation in these healthy behaviours can be increased using dedicated community centres that address contextual barriers (e.g., access to resources, time costs).</strong></p>

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Are people with social anxiety disorder happier alone?

Cited by 20 publications

References 72 publications

Positive emotional reactivity to pleasant social and nonsocial stimuli in social anxiety disorder.

Positive emotional reactivity to pleasant social and nonsocial stimuli in social anxiety disorder.

Enhanced Mood After a Getting-Acquainted Interaction with a Stranger: Do Shy People Benefit Too?

Presenting a New Model for Addressing Non-severe Psychological Problems: Community Centres Dedicated to Therapeutic Lifestyle Change

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