Abstract
Cognitive models of social anxiety predict that interpretation bias mediates the relationship between level of social anxiety and state anxiety in response to social-evaluative threat. We tested this prediction in 67 socially anxious undergraduates. Participants completed self-report measures of social anxiety and interpretation bias, and 2 days later they completed an impromptu speech. Mediational analyses supported the hypothesis that interpretation bias mediates the effect of social anxiety on state anxiety in response to the speech. This relationship was specific to negative interpretation of ambiguous social scenarios. The current findings support cognitive models of social phobia and add to the empirical base supporting the role of interpretation bias in social anxiety.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Notes
The participants in the current paper are a subsample of participants included in the first author’s dissertation.
After arriving at both experimental sessions, the participants completed several, additional measures that are not the focus of this paper.
References
Amir, N., Beard, C., & Bower, E. (2005). Interpretation and social anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29, 433–443.
Amir, N., Foa, E. B., & Coles, M. E. (1998). Negative interpretation bias in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 945–958.
Beard, C., & Amir, N. (2008). A multi-session interpretation modification program: Change in interpretation and social anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 1135–1141.
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1996). Beck depression inventory, 2nd edn, Manual. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
Clark, D., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. Heimberg, M. Liebowitz, D. Hope, & R. Schneider (Eds.), Social phobia: Diagnosis, assessment, and treatment (pp. 69–93). New York: Guilford Press.
Constans, J., Penn, D., Ihen, G., & Hope, D. (1999). Interpretive biases for ambiguous stimuli in social anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 643–651.
Franklin, M. E., Huppert, J., Langner, R., Leiberg, S., & Foa, E. B. (2005). Interpretation bias: A comparison of treated social phobics, untreated social phobics, and controls. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29, 289–300.
Fresco, D. M., Coles, M. E., Heimberg, R. G., Leibowitz, M. R., Hami, S., Stein, M. B., et al. (2001). The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale: A comparison of the psychometric properties of self-report and clinician-administered formats. Psychological Medicine, 31, 1025–1035.
Hirsch, C., & Mathews, A. (1997). Interpretive inferences when reading about emotional events. Behavior Research and Therapy, 35, 1123–1132.
Hirsch, C., & Mathews, A. (2000). Impaired positive inferential bias in social phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 705–712.
Hirsch, C. R., Mathews, A., & Clark, D. M. (2007). Inducing an interpretation bias changes self-imagery: A preliminary investigation. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 2173–2181.
Hofmann, S. G., Newman, M. G., Ehlers, A., & Roth, W. T. (1995). Psychophysiological differences between subgroups of social phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104, 224–231.
Liebowitz, M. R. (1987). Social phobia. Modern Problems in Phamacopsychiatry, 22, 141–173.
MacKinnon, D. P., Fairchild, A. J., & Fritz, M. S. (2007a). Mediation analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 593–614.
MacKinnon, D. P., Fritz, M. S., Williams, J., & Lockwood, C. M. (2007b). Distribution of the product confidence limits for the indirect effect: Program PRODCLIN. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 384–389.
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffmann, J. M., West, S. G., & Sheets, V. (2002). A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychological Methods, 7, 83–104.
Mennin, D. S., Fresco, D. M., Heimberg, R. G., Schneier, F. R., Davies, S. O., & Liebowitz, M. R. (2002). Screening for social anxiety disorder in the clinical setting: using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 16, 661–673.
Murphy, R., Hirsch, C. R., Mathews, A., Smith, K., & Clark, D. M. (2007). Facilitating a benign interpretation bias in a high socially anxious population. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 1517–1529.
Rapee, R., & Abbott, M. J. (2007). Modelling relationships between cognitive variables during and following public speaking in participants with social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 2977–2989.
Rapee, R., & Heimberg, R. (1997). A cognitive-behavioral model of anxiety in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 741–756.
Roth, D., Antony, M., & Swinson, R. (2001). Interpretations for anxiety symptoms in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39, 129–138.
Schulz, S. M., Alpers, G. W., & Hofmann, S. G. (2008). Negative self-focused cognitions mediate the effect of trait social anxiety on state anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 438–449.
Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic confidence intervals for indirect effects in structural equation models. In S. Leinhart (Ed.), Sociological methodology (pp. 290–312). Washington, DC: American Sociological Association.
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., & Lushene, R. (1970). Manual for the state–trait anxiety inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologist Press.
Stopa, L., & Clark, D. (2000). Social Phobia and interpretation of social events. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 273–283.
Yoon, L., & Zinbarg, R. (2007). Threat is in the eye of the beholder: Social anxiety and the interpretation of ambiguous facial expressions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 839–847.
Acknowledgments
We thank Elizabeth Butler, Ashley Clever, Ashley Howell, Maryann Owens, Kate Peterson, and Haley Wood for their help with data collection. Time and effort for the preparation of this manuscript was supported by a post-doctoral training fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health (F32 MH083330) awarded to the first author.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Beard, C., Amir, N. Negative Interpretation Bias Mediates the Effect of Social Anxiety on State Anxiety. Cogn Ther Res 34, 292–296 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9258-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9258-6