Representations of the self in social phobia: Vulnerability to social threat

Abstract

A revised Stroop color-naming task was used to test hypotheses derived from Beck's cognitive theory of anxiety disorders which proposes that social phobics are hypervigilant to social-evaluative threat cues. Color-naming latencies for social and physical threat words were compared to matched neutral words for both social phobics and individuals with panic disorder. As predicted, social phobics showed longer latencies for social threat words, and panickers had longer latencies for physical threat words. Latency for color-naming social threat words correlated with self-reported avoidance among social phobics. These results are consistent with Beck's notion of self-schemata which facilitate the processing of threat cues. Methodological issues and clinical implications are discussed.

Attentional biases in social anxiety: An investigation using the inattentional blindness paradigm

“…Mismatch between the color and content of the word (e.g., the word "green" printed in red) typically results in a longer response latency, which has been typically regarded as evidence of cognitive interference. Modified versions of Stroop tests presenting emotional threat words have been used to examine attentional biases in numerous conditions, including depression (Klieger & Cordner, 1990;Segal, Truchon, Gemar, & Guirguis, 1995;Segal & Vella, 1990), panic disorder (McNally et al, 1994;McNally, Riemann, & Kim, 1990;McNally, Riemann, Louro, Lukach, & Kim, 1992), obsessive-compulsive disorder (Foa, Ilai, McCarthy, Shoyer, & Murdock, 1993;Lavy, Vanoppen, & Vandenhout, 1994), posttraumatic stress disorder (Foa, Feske, Murdock, Kozak, & Mccarthy, 1991;Kaspi, McNally, & Amir, 1995;McNally, English, & Lipke, 1993), specific phobia (Lavy, Vandenhout, & Arntz, 1993;Mathews & Sebastian, 1993), and SAD (Becker, Rinck, Margraf, & Roth, 2001;Hope, Rapee, Heimberg, & Dombeck, 1990;Lundh & Ost, 1996;Maidenberg, Chen, Craske, Bohn, & Bystritsky, 1996;Mattia, Heimberg, & Hope, 1993;McNeil et al, 1995;Spector, response latencies to threat words in contrast with non-threat words have been deemed to indicate selective attention towards the threat.…”

“…They found that SAD patients displayed longer latencies specifically to social threat words, whereas GAD patients displayed longer latencies to all types of emotional words (Becker et al, 2001;Hope et al, 1990). McNeil and colleagues (1995) compared patients with circumscribed speech phobia, generalized SAD, and generalized SAD with avoidant personality disorder using an emotional Stroop test.…”

“…In summary, the emotional Stroop paradigm has been extensively used to examine attentional biases associated with SAD. Most studies using the Stroop paradigm have shown that individuals with heightened social anxiety or SAD display longer colornaming latencies in response to social threat words (e.g., Andersson, Westoo, & Johansson, 2006;Spector, Pecknold, & Libman, 2003;Amir, Freshman, & Foa, 2002;Becker, Rinck, Margraf, & Roth, 2001;McNeil et al, 1995;Hope, Rapee, Heimberg, & Dombeck, 1990;Lundh & Ost, 1996;Maidenberg, Chen, Craske, Bohn, & Bystritsky, 1996;Mattia, Heimberg, & Hope, 1993) with very few exceptions that have revealed no or shorter response latencies (e.g., Kindt, Bogels, & Morren, 2003;Amir et al, 1996). However, as pointed out by Bogels and Mansell (2004), the specificity is questionable given some data indicating that other groups of patients also show delayed response to social threat words (e.g., Becker et al, 2001;Mathews & Macleod, 1985).…”

The Effects of Sexually Explicit Words on the Formation of Stimulus Equivalence Classes

“…For example, results of the modified Stroop procedure (Hope, Rapee, Heimberg, & Dombeck, 1990) have shown that subjects usually take longer to color-name fearrelated stimuli in comparison with their neutral counterparts. This study has demonstrated a novel behaviorally based approach to the assessment and effects of stimulus "meaning" on behavior.…”

Selective Processing of Food– and Body–Related Information and Autonomic Arousal in Patients with Eating Disorders

“…Stroop interference is obtained by selecting words relevant te tbe current concern of individuals and matching them with neutral words. Stroep interference has been feund in social phobia (Hope, Rapee, Heimberg, & Dombeck, 1990), panie disorder , generalized anxiety disorder (Mathews & MacLeed,[985), obsessive compulsive disorder (Fea & McNally, 1986), post-traumatic stress diserder (McNally, Kaspi, Rienmann, & Zeitiin, 1990), and spider pliebia (Watts, McKenna, Sharrock, & Trezise, 1986). In te fleld of eating diserders, several studies (Ben-Tovim & Walker, 1991;Ben-Tovim, Walker, Fok, & Yap, 1989;Channen, Hemsley, & de Silva, 1988;Ceoper & Fairburn, 1992;Cooper & Fairbum, 1993;Fairburn, Coeper, Coeper, McKenna, & Anastasiades, l991;Perpiflá, Hemsley, Treasure, & de Silva, 1993) have ebserved selective bias in the precessing of food-and body-related words in clinical samples, as welI as in dieters and restrained eatcrs (Ceoper & Fairbum 1992;Perpiñá et al, 1993;Stewart & Samoluk, 1997).…”