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Examining the Role of Implicit Emotional Judgments in Social Anxiety and Experiential Avoidance

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Abstract

This study sought to examine the relationship of implicit emotional judgments with experiential avoidance (EA) and social anxiety. A sample of 61 college students completed the Emotional Judgment – Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (EJ-IRAP) as well as a public speaking challenge. Implicit judgments were related to greater self-reported EA, anxiety sensitivity, emotional judgments and social anxiety as well as lower performance ratings and willingness in the public speaking challenge. Effects differed by trial type with “Anxiety is bad” biases related to greater EA/anxiety, while “calm is bad” biases related to lower EA/anxiety (“Good” biases were generally unrelated to outcomes). Implicit emotional judgments moderated the relationship of heart rate during the speech with speech time and willingness, such that increases in heart rate were only related to lower speech time and willingness among those high in implicit judgments. Implicit judgments predicted social anxiety above and beyond self-report EA measures. Implicit emotional judgments appear to have a functional role in EA and anxiety that warrants further research.

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Notes

  1. Preliminary analyses with emotion stimuli indicated that IRAP effects with one of the anxiety stimuli (“worried”) did not correlate with the other anxiety stimuli (r coefficients ranging between -.16 and .15). This stimulus was therefore removed from all analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Utah State University, 2810 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322, USA

    Michael E. Levin & Jack Haeger

  2. Chrysalis Utah, Inc., 545 W 465 N, Ste 100, Providence, UT, 84332, USA

    Gregory S. Smith

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  1. Michael E. Levin
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  2. Jack Haeger
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Correspondence to Michael E. Levin.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of Interest

Dr. Levin is a research associate with Contextual Change LLC, a small business involved in developing commercial web-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy programs. Dr. Smith and Mr. Haeger declare having no conflicts of interest.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Levin, M.E., Haeger, J. & Smith, G.S. Examining the Role of Implicit Emotional Judgments in Social Anxiety and Experiential Avoidance. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 39, 264–278 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-016-9583-5

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