Social anxiety and attention away from emotional faces

A substantial literature indicates that anxiety is often associated with selective attention to threat cues. Socially anxious individuals are excessively concerned about negative evaluation by others. One might therefore predict that high social anxiety would be associated with selective attention t...

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Main Authors: Mansell, W, Clark, D, Ehlers, A, Chen, Y
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 1999
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author Mansell, W
Clark, D
Ehlers, A
Chen, Y
author_facet Mansell, W
Clark, D
Ehlers, A
Chen, Y
author_sort Mansell, W
collection OXFORD
description A substantial literature indicates that anxiety is often associated with selective attention to threat cues. Socially anxious individuals are excessively concerned about negative evaluation by others. One might therefore predict that high social anxiety would be associated with selective attention to negative facial expressions. On the other hand, some recent models have suggested that social anxiety may be associated with reduced processing of external social cues. A modified dot-probe task was used to investigate face attention. High and low socially anxious individuals were presented with pairs of pictures, consisting of a face (positive, neutral, or negative) and a household object, under conditions of social-evaluative threat or no threat. The results indicated that, compared to low socially anxious individuals, high socially anxious individuals show an attentional bias away from emotional (positive and negative) faces but this effect is only observed under conditions of social-evaluative threat. Theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed. © 1999 Psychology Press Ltd.
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spelling oxford-uuid:2fd209cb-3749-480e-8dc3-43682019e81b2022-03-26T12:57:47ZSocial anxiety and attention away from emotional facesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:2fd209cb-3749-480e-8dc3-43682019e81bEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford1999Mansell, WClark, DEhlers, AChen, YA substantial literature indicates that anxiety is often associated with selective attention to threat cues. Socially anxious individuals are excessively concerned about negative evaluation by others. One might therefore predict that high social anxiety would be associated with selective attention to negative facial expressions. On the other hand, some recent models have suggested that social anxiety may be associated with reduced processing of external social cues. A modified dot-probe task was used to investigate face attention. High and low socially anxious individuals were presented with pairs of pictures, consisting of a face (positive, neutral, or negative) and a household object, under conditions of social-evaluative threat or no threat. The results indicated that, compared to low socially anxious individuals, high socially anxious individuals show an attentional bias away from emotional (positive and negative) faces but this effect is only observed under conditions of social-evaluative threat. Theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed. © 1999 Psychology Press Ltd.
spellingShingle Mansell, W
Clark, D
Ehlers, A
Chen, Y
Social anxiety and attention away from emotional faces
title Social anxiety and attention away from emotional faces
title_full Social anxiety and attention away from emotional faces
title_fullStr Social anxiety and attention away from emotional faces
title_full_unstemmed Social anxiety and attention away from emotional faces
title_short Social anxiety and attention away from emotional faces
title_sort social anxiety and attention away from emotional faces
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