Coping with negative mental images in social anxiety disorder: Investigating the potential benefits of image morphing

Abstract

Negative mental imagery contributes to symptom maintenance in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Here, we investigated the effects of image morphing, a brief mental strategy designed to facilitate access to positive images. Participants with SAD and healthy control (HC) participants were randomly assigned to receive either image morphing or supportive counseling. Although initial training and 1-week daily practice were successful in equipping morphing participants across groups with the required skill, those assigned to morphing failed to demonstrate differential improvements in positive affect, negative affect, or selfperception relative to control participants during a subsequent social stress task. Ancillary analyses revealed that the number of positive details contained in retrieved or morphed images prior to the task significantly predicted the level of positive affect reported after the task, but this effect was observed only for HC participants. We discuss the need for future research to refine innovative imagery-based psychotherapeutic strategies for social anxiety.

The effects of positive interpretation bias on cognitive reappraisal and social performance: Implications for social anxiety disorder

“…Following prior studies (Rapee & Lim, 1992;Vidovic, Romano, & Moscovitch, 2019), participants engaged in an impromptu speech task in order to elicit social stress. For this task, the research assistant provided participants with three controversial topics (abortion, freedom of speech, population control) and informed them that they would soon be expected to deliver a 3-minute speech in which they were required to give their opinion on any or all of the topics (as they wished).…”

“…They were told that they would present their speech to a video-camera in the lab room, with no other spectators present but that expert raters would later rate the quality of their speech and various other aspects of their performance. Although this procedure did not require the presence of confederates to rate social performance during the task, POSITIVE INTERPRETATION BIAS AND COGNITIVE REAPPRAISAL we have found in prior studies that the presence of a video camera alone similarly induces the experience of social threat by priming the expectation of social evaluation (e.g., Moscovitch & Hofmann, 2007;Vidovic et al, 2019). Following this instruction, the research assistant left the room and participants were given 3-minutes to anticipate their speech.…”

“…Details about the intervention conditions and their effects are reported elsewhere(Romano et al, 2019), as are data on pre-intervention measures of social problem solving(Romano et al, 2019).…”

Innovations and advances in cognitive behavioral therapy: Insights from experimental psychopathology

“…Behavioral experiments are a key theme throughout the article; by developing individualized and collaborative tests of beliefs with our clients, we may be best able to target the key factors driving their symptoms. Vidovic, Romano, and Moscovitch (2019) were interested in understanding whether negative mental images can be modified in an experimental study and how this new technique might support therapeutic gains. The authors introduced a brief version of imagery rescripting-or changing the content of one's memory to meet the needs of one's younger selfas a technique to morph participants' negative mental images into ones that are more positive.…”

Interventions Targeting Negative Mental Imagery in Social Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Characteristics and Outcomes

“…Other variants of IR could be explored as well. However, it has been proposed that instructions for making meaningful changes during IR seem necessary to retain, as a training in more freely 'morphing' negative imagery features into positive ones did not appear to be more beneficial than supportive counselling(Vidovic, Romano, and Moscovitch 2019; excluded from our review…”