Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:59:49.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Relation Between Social Anxiety and Audience Perception: Examining Clark and Wells’ (1995) Model Among Adolescents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2013

Anke W. Blöte ,
Anne C. Miers ,
David A. Heyne ,
David M. Clark  and
P. Michiel Westenberg
Anke W. Blöte*
Affiliation:
Leiden University, The Netherlands
Anne C. Miers
Affiliation:
Leiden University, The Netherlands
David A. Heyne
Affiliation:
Leiden University, The Netherlands
David M. Clark
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, UK
P. Michiel Westenberg
Affiliation:
Leiden University, The Netherlands
*
Reprint requests to Anke W. Blöte, Leiden University Institute of Psychology, Developmental Psychology Unit, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Clark and Wells’ cognitive model of social anxiety proposes that socially anxious individuals have negative expectations of performance prior to a social event, focus their attention predominantly on themselves and on their negative self-evaluations during an event, and use this negative self-processing to infer that other people are judging them harshly. Aims: The present study tested these propositions. Method: The study used a community sample of 161 adolescents aged 14–18 years. The participants gave a speech in front of a pre-recorded audience acting neutrally, and participants were aware that the projected audience was pre-recorded. Results: As expected, participants with higher levels of social anxiety had more negative performance expectations, higher self-focused attention, and more negative perceptions of the audience. Negative performance expectations and self-focused attention were found to mediate the relationship between social anxiety and audience perception. Conclusions: The findings support Clark and Wells’ cognitive model of social anxiety, which poses that socially anxious individuals have distorted perceptions of the responses of other people because their perceptions are coloured by their negative thoughts and feelings.

Keywords

Social anxietyadolescentsself-focuscognitive biascognitive-behavioural intervention
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 42 , Issue 5 , September 2014 , pp. 555 - 567
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alfano, C. A., Beidel, D. B. and Turner, S. M. (2006). Cognitive correlates of social phobia among children and adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34, 189–201.Google Scholar
Blöte, A. W., Bokhorst, C. L., Miers, A. C. and Westenberg, P. M. (2011). Why are socially anxious adolescents rejected by peers? The role of subject-group similarity characteristics. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 22, 123–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blöte, A. W. and Westenberg, P. M. (2007). Socially anxious adolescents’ perception of treatment by classmates. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 189–198.Google Scholar
Cartwright-Hatton, S., Tschernitz, N. and Gomersall, H. (2005). Social anxiety in children: social skills deficit or cognitive distortion? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 131–141.Google Scholar
Clark, D. M. (2001). A cognitive perspective on social phobia, In Crozier, W. R. and Alden, L. E. (Eds.), International Handbook of Social Anxiety (pp. 405–430). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Clark, D. M. and Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In Heimberg, R. G., Liebowitz, M. R., Hope, D. A. and Schneier, F. R. (Eds.), Social Phobia: diagnosis, assessment, and treatment (pp. 69–91). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Clark, D. M., Ehlers, A., Hackmann, A., McManus, F., Fennell, M. J. V., Waddington, L., et al. (2006). Cognitive therapy and exposure plus applied relaxation in social phobia: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 568–578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalrymple, K. L. and Herbert, J. D. (2007). Acceptance and commitment therapy for generalized social anxiety disorder: a pilot study. Behavior Modification, 31, 543–568.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayes, A. F. (2010). MED3C. Macro retrieved from http://www.afhayes.com/spss-sas-and-mplus-macros-and-code.html.Google Scholar
Hayes, A. F., Preacher, K. J. and Myers, T. A. (2011). Mediation and the estimation of indirect effects in political communication research. In Bucy, E. P. and Holbert, R. L. (Eds.), Sourcebook for Political Communication Research: methods, measures and analytical techniques. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Heimberg, R. G., Brozovich, F. A. and Rapee, R. M. (2010). A cognitive behavioral model of social anxiety disorder: update and extension. In Hofmann, S. G. and DiBartolo, P. M. (Eds.), Social Anxiety, Clinical, Developmental, and Social Perspectives. New York: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Hodson, K. J., McManus, F. V., Clark, D. M. and Doll, H. (2008). Can Clark and Wells’ (1995) cognitive model of social phobia be applied to young people? Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 36, 449–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inderbitzen-Nolan, H. M., Anderson, E. R. and Johnson, H. S. (2007). Subjective versus objective behavioral ratings following two analogue tasks: a comparison of socially phobic and non-anxious adolescents. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 21, 76–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Inderbitzen-Nolan, H. M. and Walters, K. S. (2000). Social Anxiety Scale for adolescents: normative data and further evidence of construct validity. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 29, 360–371.Google Scholar
Kocovski, N. L., Fleming, J. E. and Rector, N. A. (2009). Mindfulness and acceptance-based group therapy for social anxiety disorder: an open trial. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 16, 276–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kovacs, M. (1985). The Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 21, 995–998.Google Scholar
La Greca, A. M. (1998). Manual for the Social Anxiety Scales for Children and Adolescents. Miami, FL: University of Miami.Google Scholar
La Greca, A. M. and Lopez, N. (1998). Social anxiety among adolescence: linkages with peer relations and friendships. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26, 83–94.Google Scholar
Lampe, L. A. (2009). Social anxiety disorder: recent developments in psychological approaches to conceptualization and treatment. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 43, 887–898.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miers, A. C., Blöte, A. W., Bögels, S. M. and Westenberg, P. M. (2008). Interpretation bias and social anxiety in adolescents. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22, 1462–1471.Google Scholar
Miers, A. C., Blöte, A. W., De Rooij, M., Bokhorst, C. L. and Westenberg, P. M. (2013). Trajectories of social anxiety during adolescence and emerging adulthood and relations with cognition, social competence, and temperament. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41, 97–110.Google Scholar
Norton, P. J. and Hope, D. A. (2001). Kernels of truth or distorted perceptions: self and observer ratings of social anxiety and performance. Behavior Therapy, 32, 765–786.Google Scholar
Ollendick, T. H. and Hirshfeld-Becker, D. R. (2002). The developmental psychopathology of social anxiety disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 51, 44–58.Google Scholar
Perowne, S. and Mansell, W. (2002). Social anxiety, self-focused attention, and the discrimination of negative, neutral and positive audience members by their nonverbal behaviors. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 30, 11–23.Google Scholar
Pineles, S. L. and Mineka, S. (2005). Attentional biases to internal and external sources of potential threat in social anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 314–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pozo, C., Carver, C. S., Wellens, A. R. and Scheier, M. F. (1991). Social anxiety and social perception: construing other's reactions to the self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 355–362.Google Scholar
Rapee, R. M. and 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.Google Scholar
Rapee, R. M. and Heimberg, R. G. (1997). A cognitive-behavioral model of anxiety in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 741–756.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schultz, L. T. and Heimberg, R. G. (2008). Attentional focus in social anxiety disorder: potential for interactive processes. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 1206–1221.Google Scholar
Spence, S. H., Donovan, C. and Brechman-Toussaint, M. (1999). Social skills, social outcomes, and cognitive features of childhood social phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 108, 211–221.Google Scholar
Stopa, L. and Clark, D. M. (1993). Cognitive processes in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 255–267.Google Scholar
Stormshak, E. A., Bierman, K. L., Bruschi, C., Dodge, K. A. and Coie, J. D. (1999). The relation between behavior problems and peer preference in different classroom contexts. Child Development, 70, 169–182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Timbremont, B. and Braet, C. (2002). Children's Depression Inventory: Nederlandstalige versie [Children's Depression Inventory: Dutch version]. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger.Google Scholar
Verduin, T. L. and Kendall, P. C. (2008). Peer perceptions and liking of children with anxiety disorders. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 459–469.Google Scholar
Westenberg, P. M., Bokhorst, C. L., Miers, A. C., Sumter, S. R., Kallen, V. L., van Pelt, J., et al. (2009). A prepared speech in front of a pre-recorded audience: subjective, physiological, and neuroendocrine responses to the Leiden Public Speaking Task. Biological Psychology, 82, 116–124.Google Scholar
Woody, S. R., Chambless, D. L. and Glass, C. R. (1997). Self-focused attention in the treatment of social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 117–129.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.